I had to learn how to teach myself
to accept myself when I told myself that I couldn't accept the trauma...because I had work in the morning.
One night Rob came home and told this story…
It was during the week around 10:00 at night and Rob was walking home from the 3rd Ave, 149th Street train station in the Bronx. Rob had been working at Madison Square Garden for a few years at this point and working late was the norm.
He said he was passing the Oxford medical center…it was fairly new at the time. This was right across the street from the fish market where we could smell that fish from a block away, but it was still our go-to for whiting.
As Rob was passing the medical center, about 3 or 4 cop cars pulled up on him. The cops hopped out with their guns drawn screaming – get on the wall and hands where I could see them…also known to many…as the usual.
They began their aggressive search for weapons, drugs, or whatever else that would justify their stop. An ID check came back warrant-free…no guns or drugs were found and they eventually allowed Rob to go home.
They said they were looking for an armed robbery suspect with a description of a black man with a bald head. Rob replied, well yall gonna be stopping a lot of people tonight.
Rob told that story when he got home.
I had my interactions with cops, but it was nothing like that. I never had a gun pointed at me. Rob had multiple guns pointed at him and he was just walking home from work. He wore a suit every day, but even that didn’t stop the multiple cars, guns, aggressive search…all of this was traumatic to me.
I was scared, but it was odd, because Rob told the story like it was normal.
After telling the story he ate dinner, went to sleep, got up and went back to work in the morning.
Song For The 10th
Little Ghetto Boy, Donny Hathaway – I imagine this song playing as Rob completed his walk home. All of the challenges you overcome coming from where we come from only to have someone view you as just another Black man with a bald head…a little ghetto boy. My brother wasn’t no little ghetto boy…he was more than that…our brothers, old and young…are so much more than that.
