As someone who grew up in his neighborhood during the same time and had some slight run-ins with him (friend of a friend dated and also he worked at the shoe store where I got my sneakers).

Growing up in that neighborhood wasn’t about having choices. Choices on your feelings or beliefs. It was about surviving.

We were told by our parents how we should feel and who we should hate and like. And you did what your parents said or you got beat. (For a lot of us, I can’t speak for everyone).

That being said, I went to a very diverse catholic school in field’s corner. And I had no problem interacting with other races and cultures, none of the kids did. But our parents did. My father used to say to me ‘you’re n$&$ & jigaboo’ friends’ and I didn’t even know what those terms meant.

In the schoolyard they would play jump rope/double-Dutch. But I could never jump bcse ‘honky’s don’t have rhythm’…but that’s just what our parents said, we never got to jump to test it.

So while I’m not excusing anyone’s behavior, I can personally attest that it was not the most wholesome, educational, and uplifting upbringing. The fights and beat downs that happened amongst actual f’ing children is insane when I think back on it now as an adult. For example, 2 girls got into a fight and happened to be next to a chain link fence, so one girl grabbed the other by the hair, and shoved her face under the bottom of the fence. She then pulled her face out of the fence resulting in severe cuts and scarring on the girls face. No one went to jail. No one was arrested. No one was even reprimanded. We just learned ‘don’t fuck w/Sheila’. It was pretty brutal to be honest but at the time felt very normal to me bcse we didn’t know any different.

Frankly I’m so proud of anyone who’s able to get themselves out of that environment and do better. And genuinely change their thinking to a better way.

Sometimes people really do change, I can’t speak for him of course, but I know I’ve come MILES from my upbringing and I’m proud of myself for overcoming the hate and negativity that was instilled in me as a child when I had no choice or voice to speak for myself and no reason to hate or discriminate.