Kudos getting the courage to write to an author you admired. Putting your words on paper, letting someone that wrote know that they reached you. That your motives might not gave been noble (arrogant is a good phase to live as a teenager, we need to learn that we are a crafty, amazing bunch, we humans, to celebrate it, and we need to be taught hubris concretely, its positive and negative sides, etc.).
Kudos for him to write you back, with encouraging words. He probably got a good chuckle or two, and took the time, in a way, to show you you'd touched him.
Wholesome human story, thanks for sharing.
This isn't meant to imply the US is in some way particularly evil about this -- all countries have some sort of origin myths. This is more a comment on the effect of state level standardized testing.
* actual issue wasn't race-related so I elided it.