I get so used to looking at my family, and seeing people of all different colors, races and backgrounds together as being "normal", that sometimes it is really hard for me to imagine that there are still places where segregation occurs routinely.

I am not naive and I certainly do know it occurs, but that doesn't make the reminders any less painful. It is sad and it is wrong, and in this day and age, there is no excuse for it other than plain old ignorance and hate.

Four high school students in Georgia recently took a stand against an annual tradition that had been promoting segregation at their high school, and made a change for the good.

Up until this year, the students at Turner County High School in Georgia held two proms every year... a "white prom" and a "black prom". It makes me sick just to type that! While the students were completely integrated at school, tradition was to hold two separate "unofficial" proms, that were segregated by race.

This year four students, two of which were white, two of which were black, all of which were class officers, took a stand and fought to get rid of the segregation, and arranged the schools' first official interracial prom. The students said that it took some "courage" to break tradition and start a new one, but they were glad that they did.

The school received financial support from all over the world to help pay for the prom, and almost all of the 180 students attended.

You can see the news video from ABC about this story here, on AOL VIDEO. You can see the related article and photos here.

On one hand, this story makes me really happy. It makes me proud of those teenagers who stood up against a backwards and wrong tradition and actually made a change that will have a lasting impact on their community and others. I am proud of the example of love and acceptance and courage that they have shown.

On the other hand, it is so disheartening to me that this sort of thing still happens in places. I "know" that racism is alive and well, but to think of such blatant segregation still occurring in 2007 is hard to wrap my head around. It's sad to think that while we happily live as a multiracial family, that there are places where teens of different races had to make a major stand just to be able to dance together.

In this story I see hope for families like mine, and I am reminded yet again, at how very far the world has to go to catch up to us.