My son's Phoenix high school sits close to the demilitarized zone where the affluent rub shoulders (but mostly try not to) with the middle class and the children of migrants from Latin America, Africa and other far away lands. My son sometimes gets caught up in this and remonstrates about his dislike for the aloof demeanor of the "rich" kids. I try to explain to him that rich is a matter of perspective and very few, if any, of his schoolmates' families are in the category of playing poker with Andy Carnegie and JP Morgan rich like his great-great grandfather was.
Senior year fun at my son's high school includes assemblies where seniors perform all sorts of silliness for the merriment of the entire student body. Understand that among the students from far away lands are the Tongans. Tongans are immense and very hearty Pacific Islanders. Think of them as Irishmen on steroids, who love a senior year prank as much as anyone. They're the stalwart linemen of the high school football team and played basketball with my son.
A senior my son knows from baseball was featured at one of the assemblies. He was asked what kind of animal he'd like to be. Response: a TONGAN. This brought down the house, but got him suspended from school for a day. Didn't matter that his Tongan friends had put him up to it.
The enlightened among the white affluent students were appalled by the racist outburst. My son was appalled by the white students who were offended. "They don't have any Tongan friends. They don't even talk to them. If they did, they'd know it was the Tongans' idea in the first place."
Then my son went with the story about how his friend from Sudan showed him a video titled "How to get Africans to go back to Africa." It showed a boat full of watermelon and fried chicken. When my son chuckled, one of the white enlightened who was looking on denounced him as a racist. His response: "Hey, it's the guy from Sudan who you aren't even friends with who's showing the video."
A high school life lesson on hypocrisy.
