The Color of Friendship

Piper Dellums:
[to Mahree] You do drink chocolate, right? Or maybe you only like vanilla.

[Mahree just found out that her host family is black]

Mahree Bok:
[to Roscoe and Piper] You're the family?

Roscoe Dellums:
[nodding] Yes.

Mahree Bok:
[to Congressman Dellums] And you're the Congressman?

Ron Dellums:
[forcing a smile] Welcome to America.

Ron Dellums:
[to Mahree] I'm going to bed. And you should, too. School starts tomorrow. Falling asleep in class on the first day of school is frowned on here in America. I know, because I've done it.

[Mahree giggles]

Ron Dellums:
I have a friend, a new friend, from South Africa. And this friend recently told me about a unique bird found in her country. And what is remarkable about this bird is not that it nests, for all birds nest, but that this particular bird nests in a community all unrelated to each other and all of different colors. This community of different colors and different birds has one common goal: to care for each other. We are a world of people, not ethnic groups, not races, and not different descriptions of people on paper. We are human beings. And if there is one thing that human beings have in common, it is the desperate need to be free.