Luis Vidal, five-foot-five, 140-pounds, feels the pressure on the football field.
He's not tall enough.
Not big enough.
Not black enough.
``The white boys on the team have to work harder,'' says Luis, 18, who has light skin and is of Puerto Rican and Honduran descent. ``We have to prove ourselves.''
But off the field, Luis is one of the guys. He hangs out exclusively with black teenagers -- some of whom don't even recognize him as white Hispanic.
``He's as black as we are,'' says senior Kendrick Smith, a running back.
At American Senior High -- one of the most diverse high schools in the state -- race and ethnicity factor into how the teenagers view themselves and the world around them. Skin color plays a role in friendships, relationships -- even which clubs a student joins.
Teenagers today have a dramatically different perspective on race and ethnicity than their parents did. Their views are driven by pop culture, by their moment in history and by virtue of having grown up in culturally diverse schools.
To them, black and white are more than just colors of skin. They are ways of speaking, dressing and acting.
Read the complete story at miamiherald.com