<p>Funny how the parents often have more trouble getting along than the kids, and not just when it comes to race.</p>
<p>My parents attended Freshman Parents’ Weekend at Brown at the height of the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill brouhaha. My parents were in the tiny dorm room, making small talk with the parents of my sister’s roommate. They chatted about the long drive to Providence, and my mother said something about how the Senate hearings were carried live on every radio station, so they’d had nothing else to listen to.</p>
<p>In response, the roommate’s father smashed his fist onto the desk and yelled, “That b!tch! She claims he made comments about her breasts, but I saw those breasts on TV, and there’s nothing there worth talking about!”</p>
<p>Well, it didn’t go so well after that. The two kids were sharing the tiny room in peace, but put the parents in there, and you get World War Three.</p>