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edit- don't type long stories after strong coffee :)
My mother taught me to treat everyone as equals (or more specifically "by the content of their character")
Grew up in a town called Takoma Park. I was on the edge of TP, technically in Prince George's County.
Had an 'alternate' address for school, thanks to a nice man named David Eisner, the owner of the House of Musical Traditions in Takoma Park, Maryland.
This was the mid '80s, and the crack epidemic had hit hard, and there was a huge difference in the quality of the school systems.
As a teen my mother was ill, and I lived in a world of basketball. I have a heart problem, but as a child and teen, most in the neighborhood believed I was headed to the NBA. I played with 90% black teammates, and never thought anything of it. For the most part I had friends, and the older crowd watched out for me, and wouldn't even let me smoke marijuana, warning me of "Len Bias". I was sucker-punched a couple times, and once warned to go home by an older friend/advisor because I had blocked the shot of a man who had just been released from jail/prison.
My father was a dept head and math teacher, in the inner city Baltimore. He was not racist. He put a lot of love in his job. He coached a girls basketball team from his school, and they were very talented and successful. The only racist moment I recall, was the day he came home crying. Apparently his team had rushed into the stands of the opposing team crowd and their was a brutal fight/riot. He was crying and said the N-word for the only time I'd heard that from him.
As I got older, I came out of my sports-world delusion-protective-shell, and became more aware of how race still plays a part in our society.
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Preparation. Discipline. Patience. Decisiveness.
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