Some of my best friends are white

Glamour Magazine's October issue asks whether you have friends of other races and ethnicities.

Now, this might sound like a silly question to you but the magazine is doing it in response to a little dust-up they had about a year ago when editors there criticized black women in the workplace for wearing their hair in natural styles like afros (I blogged about it here).

I got to thinking about the story earlier today after a reporter called and asked if she could interview me about race and the election. She's from a Swiss television network and said people there are really interested in how prominent the topic of race is in this country and about the role it is playing in national politics.

She asked if Americans will really vote for or against Sen. Barack Obama based on his skin color, or is that a false impression given off by the American media.

The Swiss hardly ever discuss race. It is something they never think about, she said.

Hmmm... my immediate thought, though I didn't say it to her, was that the reason they don't talk about it is because there are no black people in Switzerland. I know that is an exaggeration, but you know there aren't that many of us there so don't even front. A Swiss person can probably yodel from one end of the country to the other without ever having a black person be within earshot.

Back on topic, a recent poll found that 86 percent of Americans say they have friends of different races, but another poll shows that only about 15 percent say they have a close friend of another race.

You have to ask, in this day and age why is that?

Do you have friends of other races? I'm not talking about folks you work with that you might occasionally do lunch with every now and then. I'm talking about true friends.

People with whom you tell your deepest secrets, talk with on a regular basis. You go to their house and chill and vice versa. Someone you can talk to about anything and everything. You know, that someone of the opposite race who is down for you whenever and however, and vice versa.

A real genuine friend dammit, you know what I mean.

If you do, what are some of the challenges to interracial friendship? What are some of the rewards? If you don’t have friends of other races, why not?