When I applied for undergraduate admission to UNC Chapel Hill in 1996, it wasn't just about your grades and standardized test scores. With a 1440 (97^th percentile) on the SAT, I figured I was in a pretty good spot.

But part of the admissions process was an interview with a randomly assigned alumnus. After the interview, they send their impressions up to the school.

And so I found myself in a cozy living room with ornate decorations. I noticed that on the fireplace mantle sat a miniature figure of a Confederate general. The interviewer was an old white man with white hair. Only a few minutes in, he interrupted me to compliment me on my "clear diction" which was "so unlike other black young men."

I was taken aback. I was used to hearing that I "don't talk black" from other kids, and I used to think of it as just teasing. But why would a grown man interviewing me in a formal setting be teasing me? I didn't know what to make of it. I responded with a lame "umm, thanks..."

When I recounted the interview to my mother on the way home, she became agitated and explained the implication: the instant he saw me coming up the walkway to his house, he'd formed an expectation that I would struggle with pronunciation, grammar, and perhaps even the production of complete thoughts.

Thinking back on it, I have to wonder what other expectations he held. It's a completely different kind of interview when everything you say is being filtered through someone's confirmation bias. For example, if I ummed and erred while speaking, as many teens do, was I confirming an expectation of intellectual deficiency?

What did he write for his review, I wonder?

At any rate, I wasn't admitted...