美国国家公共电台 NPR Teenager Opens Up To Her Dad About Her Experiences With Racism

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It is Friday, which is when we share conversations from StoryCorps. Today we hear from a father who sat down with his teenage 1 daughter for a difficult conversation about race. Calvin Burns has trouble getting 15-year-old Stepheni Bellamy to talk, something parents of teenagers everywhere can relate to. He hoped that doing a StoryCorps interview and sharing stories from his own teenage years might help. And you should know that their conversation includes a racial 2 slur 3.

CALVIN BURNS: Growing up in school, I was usually the only black kid. And a lot of times, I did feel left out. It was really tough, but I think it made me stronger, being the outsider.

STEPHENI BELLAMY: I can relate because, going to high school, there's not people just like me. There's mostly white people.

BURNS: How does that make you feel, being the only person there like that?

BELLAMY: Sometimes it's kind of hard because, like, in history, when we're talking about slavery 4 or something, a whole bunch 5 of people will just turn and look at me. And it makes me, like, say, yeah, I know. I'm black.

Have you ever been called the N-word?

BURNS: I've definitely 6 been called that. And I think back to the time when me and my friends - that's when we were like 12 years old - and some guys in a truck drove 7 close to us. And I can remember the guy saying, whoop 8, there it is, niggers. And the guys almost ran us over, and we were pretty upset.

Have you ever been called that word before?

BELLAMY: Yeah. Just recently, somebody called me that word. And some people, like, say go back to Africa or something like that.

BURNS: This is not stuff 9 I was aware of. I didn't know that kids like that existed at your school. Pheni, I want you to know that you're not what they've been told you're like. It just - it's kind of heart-aching (ph) to think about the stuff that I went through and you're still going through those same things. I want you to know that if you ever feel scared or if these sort of things happen in the future, I mean, I'm always there for you to talk to me about them.

BELLAMY: I don't know. I just never really like to talk about myself or things that, like, I go through.

BURNS: So do you think by not talking about it that it's going to get better?

BELLAMY: No, probably not.

BURNS: I think you've done more talking today than you have (laughter) in the last 12 months.

BELLAMY: Yeah.

BURNS: I really thank you for coming here with me and for getting outside your comfort zone. And I hope that we can have more conversations like this in the future. I love you.

BELLAMY: Love you, too.

(SOUNDBITE OF ALEX FITCH'S "MILE POST 1")

INSKEEP: That's Calvin Burns with his daughter Stepheni Bellamy in Denver, Colo. Their interview will be archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress 10.