Rob

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“I feel like it’s hard to be black in America and to never experience racism. With that said, has it prevented me from doing what I want to do? No, you know. I won’t let that happen. It’s funny, for me it was sort of the interactions I had with the police when I was younger. Now I’ve got a gray beard, I’m kind of older, so that thing doesn’t sort of happen anymore. But when you’re 17, 18, 19 and a black guy, I think your interactions with the police tend to come from a place of immediate suspension, whenever there’s an interaction. I just notice how different my interactions are now that I’m older. I wasn’t a kid who got into a whole bunch of trouble or anything like that. But every time you got pulled over, it was likely to be something. Obviously it wasn’t every time, but you always had that apprehension. There was a time I was out at Preakness, maybe in my 30’s. Some drunken idiot called me a N%#@*r. I brushed it off, mostly. But we got into a little scuffle. My mother is white, she is from Switzerland. My father is black, he is from New York. Kids in school would ask me, “So are you white or are you black?” I don’t think it was malicious or anything like that. It wasn’t as common as it is today, it was definitely different at the time. When I was younger, I would have said both. But as you get older, the way that you are perceived, affects the way you see yourself on some levels. I look black. If you didn’t know my family history or whatever, people just assume your black. And on some levels treat your accordingly, for good or for bad.”