My experiences with black people in New York are as follows: having a doorman aggressively ask me for a cigarette outside a bar; group of young black kids harassing me and my friend trying to sell a rap CD; a black person (can't remember if it was a doorman) jibing me and my companion unprovoked as we walked down the street; a black "comedian" making a homophobic joke towards me and my friend at a comedy show we went to; and a black server in STARBUCKS treating me extremely rudely when I asked him politely to toast me a sandwich.

I am struggling to think of a single bad interaction I had with anyone else. The closest I can think of is a French douchebag complaining because he didn't like a picture my friend took of him and his girlfriend in Rockefeller Tower.

I'm pretty open-minded. A Muslim gentleman helped me take an earring out in my hotel room after it got infected; he was a total gent about it.

My point being, maybe, just maybe, people's impressions are shaped by regular interactions with people.

I don't doubt there is racism towards black people in America, there is, but the media and race-baiters like Sharpton and Jackson, and the asinine differences in "objective" reporting as re: Obama/Trump, mean I think it's important to think rationally and personally, rather than follow an agenda-led construct.