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America's schools are becoming increasingly diverse. But where kids live can lead to a separation that even a diverse school cannot bridge. For example, at Teaneck High School, a racially diverse school in New Jersey, the doors of opportunity are literal. There are three main entrances at the school, and kids refer to them as "the black door," "the Latino door" and "the white door." Originally, the nicknames came from the fact that those were the doors the various groups entered when the buses dropped them off; even though Teaneck has become more integrated, the terms have stuck, and each group continues to hang out by its respective door.
Kris DeBlasio, 20, a graduate of Teaneck High School who is white and works as a lifeguard at the school pool, says when he was a student, he entered through the "black door" and a black student grabbed him by the throat until another black classmate said DeBlasio was "cool" and should be left alone. Still, DeBlasio, who says his best friend is black, believes there has been progress. "When my father was growing up in Brooklyn, I don't think he had a single black friend," he says. "[Racism] still exists, but it isn't as blatant as it used to be."
Bias crimes, however, one of the most obvious expressions of racism, are still a fact of teen life. According to Justice Department statistics, the number of hate crimes reported nationwide rose 10% from 1995 to 1996 (the jump could be due to better reporting). In Chicago black youngster Lenard Clark, 13, was beaten into a coma in March, allegedly by a group of white teens. "This is not about race," argues Tommy, 23, a white resident of Bridgeport, the neighborhood where Clark's beating took place. "A lot of times it's about territory. If we fight with black guys, we're called racists. But that's not true. If you're from a different race and you show disrespect, we're going to straighten you out." Says Tommy's friend Kevin, 18, who is also white: "Half of them over there [blacks], they got better cars than we do. And they don't even have jobs. They got free rent, and their grocery bills paid. You know something? I don't have no pity in my pinkie toe for those people."
And in a bizarre incident in Tucson, Ariz., a group of skinheads built a Nazi bunker on city property (it was bulldozed) and then, a few weeks later, mounted a cow's head on the hood of a 1970 Ford Thunderbird and drove around town shouting white-power slogans. Many of today's race-hate groups, however, are more sophisticated. According to the TIME/CNN survey, 75% of white teens and 55% of black teens say they have access to a computer with Internet capability at home or school. There they may find that hate groups are also plugging in and logging on. Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center says the number of "hate sites" on the Internet--ranging from the Aryan Dating Page to the Nigger Joke Center--has doubled in the past eight months and stands at more than 500. "Lunatic fringe does not translate into lack of sophistication," says Cooper. "The Web has given an unprecedented opportunity to the lunatic fringe of racists to market their ideas to young people."