Matt Rose
Sterling Heights, MI

For five years I was a SHARP (Skinhead Against Racial Prejudice.) In those five years, every preconceived notion I had about racism, anti-racism and idealism got turned on its head. I was hated by racist Whites for being a “race traitor”, and hated by everyone else for looking like what they thought a racist looked like. I could talk up and down about how I believed racism to be wrong, how I wanted nothing for mankind but equality, peace and justice. Instead I got called a Nazi or worse. Women clutched their purses when I walked by. The only thing I took away from those five years was that you can’t change other people’s minds; They will believe what they believe and nothing you say or do will change that.