I couldn't adjust to the racism in Florida. It was so blatant... I had never been so described as Florida described me.

I was fortunate enough to have been raised to a certain point before I got into the race thing. I had other views of what a human is, so I was never able to see racism as the big question. Racism was horrendous, but there were other aspects to life.

I didn't run into racism until we moved to Nassau when I was ten and a half, but it was vastly different from the kind of horrendous oppression that black people in Miami were under when I moved there at 15. I found Florida an antihuman place.

I have always been a learner because I knew nothing.

So it's been kind of a long road, but it was a good journey altogether.

But I always had the ability to say no. That's how I called my own shots.