LaToya Souvenir, an African-American, used to think that Puerto Rican girls were just kissy, chattering consumers of rice and beans. Then she befriended Lisa and found out how wrong she was.

One interesting sidelight to this story: LaToya rarely if ever met anyone outside her own race all the way through high school. It wasn't until she transferred out of her neighborhood school that she began to meet people from other backgrounds. How many of your students are in the same position? Where do they get their impressions of people from other races and ethnic groups?