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‘Come meet a black person' event hopes to bring people together in lighthearted manner

To celebrate its 16th anniversary, a Lawrenceville, Georgia, professional organization is hosting a unique event.

Cheryle Moses, a digital content creator and the founder and producer of UMM -- a consortium of content creators in a variety of media -- said the event was inspired by a 2014 study by Robert Jones, of the Public Religion Research Institute, which found that 75 percent of whites do not have black friends or friends of any race other than white, for that matter.

According to PRRI, if a white person has 100 friends, 91 are white, one each is black, Latino, Asian, mixed race or other and three are of unknown race. Blacks on the other hand would have 83 black friends, eight white friends, two Latino friends, no Asian friends, three mixed race friends, one friend classified as other and four friends of unknown race.

“It blew me away because, as a black person, you kind of know most white people don’t have black friend, but to actually see a number -- that quantifies it,” said Moses, 58. “I know everything about white people, but a lot of white people don’t know much about our culture or our community. Not real stuff anyway,” she said.

So far, reaction to the event has been supportive, Moses said, with most people understanding the attempt to bring people together in a lighthearted manner.

Guests are invited to the Urban Media Maker's "Come Meet a Black Person" networking event on Thursday, November 16 at Cornerstone in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
Read the full story at myAJC.com.