One of the first things I should have noticed about the church was probably one of the last things I realized, and that was the racial distinctions. That’s not to say that the church is racist at all, but geographically it seemed like certain races dominated church structures. 
For example, the conference I grew up in was the Allegheny East Conference, which was made up primarily of people with African descent, Jamaican descent, or other dark-skinned places of origin. Whereas, the conference I went to high school in, the Pennsylvania Conference, was made up primarily of people with European ancestors, or of the light-skinned persuasion. Of course, I didn’t meet anyone from another conference until I was eight years old and went to camp. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning.
I met my first white person when I was eight years old, at camp. Until that point I was ensconced in “black folk.” My family lived in a black neighborhood. Our church family was all black. I went to the church school so my classmates were also black. Now, even though there were varying shades of darkness in the school, everyone would have checked the box that said “African-American,” when applying for food stamps. It also wasn’t until I was eight when my father began taking me with him to other churches 
outside of our conference. I was honestly amazed that there were such divisions within the church family, that there could be such segregation. Now, I’ll say it now because I know some of you are thinking it. This is not central to just the Seventh-Day Adventist church. I have been exposed to many other religions where geographically there is a high concentration of a certain group of people, so it appears just as segregated as what I have just outlined.
So my sister and I went to camp. It was called Laurel Lake Camp, and it was run by the Pennsylvania Conference, but no one had prepared me for the indoctrination I would receive. When we arrived, I realized pretty quickly that we were in a whole new world, my sister and I being the only two kids of color there. But I also realized pretty quickly that there wasn’t that much different about the new “albino” kids and the kids we had grown up with. There was just geography. Those new kids lived in middle Pennsylvania, while we lived in Philadelphia. That was all it took. And I began to think that maybe the church was more global than I had previously thought. After our two weeks at Laurel Lake, my interest was peaked. Maybe there was a chance for an intermingling of the two. That’s why I was so excited to get to go to Blue Mountain Academy, a boarding school, for high school. It was like camp, only better, in that there were kids from all over at school there.
Funnily enough, though, once we got to Blue Mountain, I began to notice small forms of segregation again. Maybe it is just human nature to want to be with others who look and/or act like you do, but in the cafeteria there were obvious separations that no one talked about. I remember one day I just got fed up with it and sat down on the “white side,” like some SDA Rosa Parks. The reaction wasn’t quite as starkly negative, though, just surprising, really. From then on, it seemed like more people broke through those lines. I had an amazing experience at Blue Mountain, but one of the moments I remember most was that day and how it felt to finally feel like an evolved person.
Since then, I have been to several churches, Adventist and not, where there is a true mix of people from all cultures, but I’ve also noticed that it really is geographical. If a church is in an area with a large population of Asians, then it will be a mostly Asian church, and that’s okay. It’s not about segregation. It’s about convenience, and I can get with that. But it’s still really nice to see everyone together, like the melting pot (cough) that America’s supposed to be.
Sam
Growing Up Seventh-Day Adventist: Taking the SATs on Sunday
Growing Up Seventh-Day Adventist: Off to School
Growing Up Seventh-Day Adventist: Suiting Up
Growing Up Seventh-Day Adventist: Being a “Preacher’s Kid” [Freshly Pressed]
Growing Up Seventh-Day Adventist: A Different Kind of Brother
Growing Up Seventh-Day Adventist: Academy Life
Sam's Online Journal 
Growing up in NYC, the melting pots were the subways, buses, schools, and places of employment. Fortunately for me, I lived on a melting pot block of apartment buildings. 2 Puerto Rican, 1 Italian, several Jewish, and their was a mix of Irish on the block. Needless to say– it was great. Yes! Whole neighborhoods often reflected one group or another. Over all, melting pot was not universal, mostly mental. Spanish use to be seen as Puerto Rican or Cuban, now Mexican and regions south of there. Black Americans were descendant of migrants from the south. Now blacks from the Caribbean seem to smother native blacks. The world is very color, class, race, and religion, CCRR, conscious. Has been and will continue. The place of my birth served me well to this day.