Last month, five weeks after a black man was elected president, a young black man composed an e-mail.

The high school senior typed three words in the subject line: "Because I'm Black???"

Then he began his letter.

hi, Cindy, i was wondering if you could help me with something …

I sat with Cornell Leffler and his friend Drew Haverman in a coffee shop last week.

The two talked about college next year, and how they met as Lincoln Southeast freshmen in English class. They remembered they sang “Lion King” songs under their breaths and became as close as brothers and talked too much in class.

Now they wanted to talk about Cornell’s e-mail, and what it’s like to be young and black in Lincoln.

"I was just so frustrated," says Cornell, a polite kid in a red collared shirt and blue jeans.

"I didn't know what else to do."

He wrote and wrote, one paragraph filling an entire page.

i enjoy playing sports hanging with my friends and doing what most 17 year old boys like to do, the only thing is … I'm black. why does this matter? It doesn't, well not to me at least, and maybe not even to you, but some parents in the state of Nebraska will not let their daughters date me or my best friend Drew …

He sent the e-mail on a Tuesday. Drew had been at a symposium on black leadership all day.

it was all about how black people are becoming better and starting to make a difference. Things that would give any young African American hope and a will to become better, you know, really make something of themselves. Not even twenty minutes later, literally, Drew and I had a gripping snap back to reality when we were told to leave a young ladies house who we were hanging out with solely because we were black …

It wasn't the first time, they say, sipping Jones sodas and trying to explain how it feels to be judged on the color of their skin instead of the content of their characters.

Now I don't want to make me and Drew sound like were the best 17 year old boys your ever going to meet were not going to Princeton or Harvard or Stanford, but, all around, were good kids … neither of us have EVER been in trouble with the law …

At the workshop that day, Drew says, they talked about improving the world. "How to keep ourselves above stereotypes."

Cornell played wide receiver on the Southeast football team. He runs track. Drew played baseball when he was younger. They both like video games, shooting hoops, girls.

Girls. Like most 17-year-old boys, they like girls.

And they like to think girls would like them.

"I mean, it's not like we're ugly."

Cornell laughs when he says it. Drew laughs, too. 

The boys are both adopted —  both by white parents. And Drew is biracial. And even though they’ve dealt with being different, with the stares and questions about who they belong to, their families never made race an issue.

Now it’s like they have to prove themselves, Drew says. And even that’s not good enough.

“Why can’t we just be us?”

At the coffee shop, Drew wears a belt buckle with the words: “Obama is my homeboy” and an image of the soon-to-be president.

People think prejudice is over because we elected a black president, Cornell says.

But it isn’t.

Earlier this year, they were going to meet two girls at the movies. Some other boys were supposed to drop the girls off — but they didn’t.

"They told them, 'We don't want you girls to be with black guys,'" Cornell says.

It’s not just dating. They make bets when they walk down the street and someone is coming from the opposite direction: Will they cross the street?

It’s being in class and feeling like being black is the answer to a question.

“If you mess up, it’s like, ‘Ahh, black people!,’ like that’s why,” Cornell says.

Once at a convenience store, the clerk was talking to someone about a recent robbery. But she kept looking at them, in the candy aisle buying their Skittles, when she said it.

They can laugh about it. They can laugh about all of it. How ridiculous it is.

But it’s frustrating, Drew says. When they were sophomores, Cornell called Drew with bad news: A girl Drew liked couldn’t date him.

Why not?

Because you’re black.

“I couldn’t believe it. I thought he was joking.”

Same thing at prom. They both had dates. Cornell arranged dinner at Grisanti's and the limo. He had his tux.

His date called a few days before the dance. Her parents wouldn't let her go with him.

They know not all adults are prejudiced. But it hurts to think that so many are, and Drew and Cornell wish they could change those minds. They’d want them to see they are just like anyone else’s sons.

"I would say, ‘Just sit down and talk to me,’” Cornell says. “‘I’m black. Is it really that big of a deal?’"

That’s why he wrote the e-mail.

i'm not looking for my five minutes of fame I just truly honestly want to know why so many people are still thinking this way, it's 2008 i figure if you write something you’ll get responses from parents and they’ll say this, this, and this is why i don’t like black people, i mean it still wont be right, but at least ill know why…

Reach Cindy Lange-Kubick at 473-7218 or clangekubick@journalstar.com.