It is impossible to feel someone else’s pain unless we went through the same experience. We can empathize but we can never feel the same pain.

One day years ago, I was hanging out with a good friend of mine. He’s black. We were in the middle of a conversation, and out of nowhere, he said to me that I was lucky because I wasn’t black. He said this in reference to the fact that I was dating a white woman at the time.

Back in those days, I was almost oblivious to racism as I’ve always lived my life in a bubble of “all nations” where color does not exist. At least in my mind, it didn’t.

I have to admit that I was baffled by what he said, yet I kept quiet and didn’t ask him what he meant.

Today, what my friend said to me back then has now become very clear.

The pain is real. And I learned my lesson.