Azizi: Your comments above are so well presented and taken.   Having left Austria in 1938 (as a 5 yr old toddler)my feelings over the years have taken a while to come to terms with what happened and the newer generations. I wrote about that above. So--won;t repeat.

Let me address your comment about the "white Jewish female friend" and the visits. That is to me such a sad tale---and one that I have heard before---sadly---while in High School. Among boys.   

There are a few films I would like to recommend if you have not seen them as yet. They address such topics in the most warm and entertaining way,

A Bronx Tale    --- Sort of a Tragi Comic West Side Story w/ De Niro

Liberty Heights----   Part of Baltimore pictures of Barry Levinson. Check the scene where the Black Doctor drives the white boy home after kicking him out of his house for visiting his daughter. The boy and daughter have a great relationship---and the boy's dad (Joe Montegna") truly bring the hypocrisy of relationships into it---in a tragi-comic (again that word) way.

Which brings me to my final comment. Since you gave a personal anecdote I will as well. As a child (from 9-15) I was fortunate to be able to attend the no longer existing Ethical Culture School Camp (summers) as a partial scholarship camper.   This was the 1940s and they made sure that there was a mix of all races, religions, and economic strata (hence the partial scholarship---there were full ones as well). Individual programs of your chosing, rotating meal seatings (to mingle with all ages and people), serve your table--no waiters, etc;   

My point is that if people will only allow their children the freedom to mix with others and not bring up the fears that abound today we all could live in a better world. If you wonder did I practice what I said I felt at ECSC---yes. I am not color blind (what a stupid expression)---but what matter is it. Frankly, I wish I had accomplished what some of the other campers did---both Black and White.   Two of the White ones became Bway Producers and the Black one that stands out in my mind became a Secty of the Army under LBJ and I still treasure our correspondence from that time.

Yes--one reads the papers and hears of these terrible neighborhboods. Yet, with some selectivity one also knows that your children have chosen friends they want to "hang" with. So, if you trust your child---black or white---yellow or green---and believe they make correct choices and are trustworthy then they should be given the freedom to visit and spend time with whomever they choose. To deny this is to create the attitude of paternelism (or Momism---have to be PC) that creates rebellion and, as well, a mistaken feeling of superiority that translates to inferiority to the other child.