0:00
what kind of character traits do you
0:01
feel like Oakland gave you to help you
0:04
end all the adversity we found out about
0:06
in this book and make you a champion
0:08
yeah it's the town it's the Bay Area and
0:10
it's it's my family you know um I don't
0:14
necessarily feel like what's the right
0:16
way to say it I don't know if you can
0:18
somebody can give you something like
0:20
that okay cuz I know C that you know and
0:23
I didn't been in Nationals as a kid and
0:25
kids I grew up here I'm in the projects
0:27
and they feel some heat and they turn
0:29
yeah and I know some kids that from the
0:32
valley and they'll fight you to the
0:33
death you know so I feel like it was
0:35
innate in me and it was just uh
0:38
cultivated where I grew up cultivated
0:40
what was already in me my father's
0:42
teachings and the way he was like when I
0:44
got knocked down from you know kovalev
0:46
the first time and I got up and I smiled
0:47
that was my daddy that was your dad that
0:49
was duke war so it was in me it just got
0:52
cultivated and and and and built up even
0:54
more just based on how I was raised
0:56
where I was raised and who raised me
0:58
Duke was a fighter himself though yes
1:00
sir you know when you read this book
1:01
which is is your book but I didn't know
1:03
about your story like this um your
1:05
father was the type that didn't back
1:07
down from a fight right not at all and
1:09
and and even in the book you said
1:11
sometimes it'll make you a little
1:12
apprehensive and nervous because you
1:13
knew that at any given moment your
1:15
father could snap what was that
1:17
like it was interesting you know it was
1:20
it was scary as a kid because you know
1:22
it's strange because my dad was
1:23
literally the man that would give a
1:25
jacket off I've seen him do it to a
1:27
homeless person hey man take this we'd
1:28
be coming out a restaurant D why you
1:30
give me a jacket cuz I got another one
1:32
he doesn't have one but just don't cross
1:35
him you know just don't cross his babies
1:39
he would just see a different side and
1:41
and and I'm thankful that I don't have
1:44
that in me cuz we may be having some
1:46
different conversations on the show
1:47
y'all would have been reading about me
1:48
on the bottom of the Sports Center
1:49
ticket oh damn war did this war did that
1:52
I'm thankful I can I you know I could
1:54
take that deep breath if I get mad or
1:56
upset and think through my situation my
1:58
dad wasn't there and he got better as he
1:59
got older but he had that temper man and
2:02
he could fight he could throw down and
2:03
then as you read in the book it was the
2:05
whole biracial thing too MH my father
2:07
was white my mother was black so
2:11
especially in the 90s you look and
2:12
people just stare yeah and if they made
2:14
a comment it was on and I don't care
2:17
where we were at it was going down so if
2:19
somebody talked up to your said
2:20
something up to your father about the
2:22
kid you being black this little black
2:24
boy yeah what you doing with these black
2:25
boys or you know just staring you know
2:27
he wouldn't just take off immediately
2:28
but he what you looking at and if he
2:30
didn't get if if it was a ag equally
2:33
aggressive response it's probably going
2:34
to go up in the grocery store wherever
2:37
you witnessed this many times wow so how
2:40
he would explain to you as a a biracial
2:43
kid about the world and and how to just
2:46
cope with that what would he say to you
2:47
he would tell me it was wrong number one
2:49
he said man you know nobody should be
2:50
looking at you or commenting on nothing
2:52
we got going on this is our family and
2:54
the color of your skin doesn't matter in
2:57
that respect like they you know I'm your
2:58
father and and you know you're my son
3:01
and people need to be okay with that and
3:03
if they not then that's on them that's
3:05
essentially how he would put it to me
3:06
and I you know I didn't fully understand
3:07
it because it's times that I mean I'm
3:11
I'm viewed and have always been viewed
3:13
as a as a young African-American man
3:15
period and it's a surprise when people
3:18
find out my father is white but you got
3:20
to deal with both sides sometimes
3:22
growing up you know not in my family but
3:24
in society just the fact that you know
3:27
the white side don't always embrace you
3:30
because you black and the black side got
3:33
something to say because you got white
3:34
in you it was a lot trying to navigate
3:37
that as a kid and you trying to find
3:38
yourself and like again I'm looked at a
3:41
certain way in society but when I go
3:42
home my father's white all my other
3:44
friends they F you know their mom or dad
3:46
are both are black so that was that was
3:48
a lot to deal with growing up
