Context: I am a dual enrollment student attending both Grady high school and GSU. Growing up I have attended roughly 15 different schools in different cities. Some of those schools being very diverse while others weren’t at all. Because of this I have learned to interact with people of different racial backgrounds. It wasn’t until I got a little bit older that I noticed that I had begun to become more closed off and built a tendency to only interact with people within my own ethnic group. This is something very common in today’s society. In this time era, we as humans, and especially as students, are so racially divided. I feel as though this division between different racial groups signifies a lack of understanding for one another. If more people had interactions outside of their own race then they could possibly grow a better appreciation for those people and become more unified as a whole.
It was a crowded Monday in Grady High school’s cafeteria. It’s a very spacious area, but still not spacious enough to store the vast amount of students that fill the room. In fact, It’s so full that you could barely hear any individual person speaking, even with the use of a microphone. One would have to yell at the top of their lungs in order to be heard even by those sitting directly next to them. The tables are very long and are layered in rows with one above another and different columns aligning each row. The lights in the Cafe are dimmed. There isn’t much use of them due to the grand rectangular windows that are positioned on every wall of the cafeteria. The windows allow a massive ray of sunlight to shine through every corner of the room. Through the windows there is a perfect view of the outdoor courtyard where students have the option to eat their food and socialize with their classmates while still interacting with nature. 
In the farther back area of the Cafe, directly in front of a vast window, there is a perfect view of everyone and everything centering the room. The plastic composed seats feel as though they’re actually made of brick. They mock the same feeling you would receive after sitting on a concrete floor for several hours at a time instead in minutes. Every single grey seat in the cafeteria is filled, each with a person of a different race, background, and particular style of clothing. Everyone has the freedom to move around and socialize whenever, however, and with whomever they please.
Amongst the numerous tables, in the very front of the cafe, lies a group of students assembled together. They were separated from the rest of the room and only interacted within the people in their group. They were having some sort of conversation. It was a very large groups of students, roughly 30 different students, both male and female. Some were laughing, others frowning, and a few were too focused on their meals to display any sort of facial expression other than hunger. They seem to share a similar taste in style which would possibly be described by the average person as an “artsy” type of look. They wore baggy and oversized jeans, shirts with unique designs and splashes of color, skater shoes, and very colorful makeup. They had various hair colors. From a neon pink so bright that it was almost as if it could glow, to a soft Gray, just about the same color as a rain-filled cloud on a stormy day. One particular girl even had a combination of colors, similar to that of a rainbow. Despite the range of different hair colors, there was one significant thing they all had in common; their race. They all were all white. All 20 of them. With not one separate race in sight.
In the very back of the cafe sat a group of roughly over 25 students, both male and female. This time there weren’t any bizarre hair colors such as pink or yellow that were seen in the previous group. Instead there were simple browns, a few reds, blacks, and occasional blondes. They all shared a “street” type of look. One particular guy wore tight skinny jeans, a graphic tee, a durag, a designer belt, along with a pair of crisp Jordan Retro 1’s called the “satin black toe’s”. The girls dressed similarly. Some wore fitted dresses and skirts while others wore ripped jeans, cropped shirts, graphic tees, and designer sneakers. They each had a variety of different hairstyles. From long waist braids with beaded designs, to voluminous curly hair similar to a large bouquet of flowers, and even long straight hair, about just as long as rapunzel’s.
The entire group were having some sort of a debate over which rapper was the “hardest”. The conversation had been going on since the start of lunch for roughly 20 minutes now. It must have been a very common argument for the group being that everyone participated in the debate and had a lot to say. Their body language and the way that they interacted with one another gave off a sense of comfortability. Great amounts of laughter filled throughout the group as the discussion became louder louder. They were so in tune and content with one another and they spoke as though they were the only ones in the room, or the only ones that mattered at least. Similarly to the previous group, they were all the same race, black. Sure some were lighter than others but when it came down to it they were all the same race.
Just about every table in the cafeteria resembled this same exact pattern. Everyone was separated into groups. Not only categorized by personal interests but primarily by race. The blacks sat with the blacks, whites sat with the whites, hispanics with the hispanics, and so on. It was almost as if segregation still existed. Except now, by choice. The groups were very spread out through the cafeteria and each group of
students conversated only with the people who looked like themselves. Paying no mind to anyone outside of their own group. It seemed like none of the students noticed this pattern, or maybe none of them cared enough to change it. Maybe it was the fact that it happened so often that the “pattern” wasn’t noticed as a pattern at all. It was just how things were, or the “norm”. Why was this so? Why are students more likely to socialize within their own race rather than going out of their comfort zone and interacting with people of a separate race? A school in the heart of Atlanta, a city so dynamic and diverse, yet the young individuals in it were still so disconnected and divided from one another. So many people fought for the integration of the human race as a whole and now that it has been achieved, some individuals don’t even take advantage of the opportunity.