When I was a little girl, I always slept with a night light on in my room. “I gotta make sure I can see my way to the bathroom at night,” I would tell my parents and anyone else who asked about it.

The real truth, however, was that I was afraid of the dark. The blackness and the unknown that it presented terrified me. Somehow, the flicker of light that the night light provided made me feel safe. I was comforted by my belief that what I could see couldn’t possibly hurt me.

I learned just last week, however, how wrong I was. Sometimes the things you see can be much scarier then anything the darkness can hide.

While out with a friend, a car full of young white males drove by, saw us, and shouted “nigger” as loud as they could. They continued down the street, their identities hidden by the darkness.

In that instant, the lights flew on and the world suddenly seemed a much crueler place. The light had exposed an ugliness of racism that I was wholly unprepared for. This is Charleston in the year 2001, I thought to myself. Surely this couldn’t be happening.

Having one black parent and one white parent, I have dealt with issues surrounding my race my entire life, but I have been, for the most part, spared from the evil and hatred that my parents and even some of my friends have endured.

For so many people, racism is just an idea, a theory – something we read about in our history books. I’ve encountered many people who are ready to proclaim equality and justice for all races. People hating one another for the color of their skin? We’ve come so far past that, haven’t we?

But just like my night light made me feel safe and secure, these people find that very same comfort in the darkness. They are reassured by a belief that color no longer matters. They don’t see the racism, so it must not be there, right?

Those young men, with their one word, had made me painfully aware that racism is still alive and well in America. Ironically, their darkness, and the comfort that they took in it, had illuminated my world. I was awakened to a light so bright, it hurt my eyes.

For those of you who doubt the continued existence of racism, come out of the darkness and turn on the light. Racism is an atrocity that defaces our nation. Believing the theory is easy. Understanding the reality and the progress that still needs to be made, is a whole other issue.

To those young men, I pity you and I pray for you, for it is your world that is the darkest of all.