Growing up in the late 80’s and 90’s, all my heroes and favorite people were black. I fell in love with the culture despite growing up in a home that didn’t exactly encourage growth and diversity.

Being poor and from Gastonia, I idolized James Worthy and Sleepy Floyd because they gave me hope that I could have a better life (even though I was never good enough to play professionally). I was the oldest of three boys, all of us on Medicaid, SNAP/food stamps, Section 8, and we received various forms of community support throughout the year to supplement our lack of resources.

I witnessed the contradiction of my family claiming to be Republican and conservative but relying on constructs of the liberal and Democratic side of the government, literally vote against their own self-interests.

Being white, we were always the minority in the neighborhoods in which we lived. My earliest recollection of where we lived in Gastonia is what used to be the Fieldstone Apartments (Section 8 housing at the time) off Modena Street. After a few years there, we moved just up the road to 1807 N. Modena Street, into a small house that’s no longer there. From there, we moved to 412 Morehead Street, also a house that is no longer there. Each move broadened my friend group, but something that always remained the same was the kids didn’t care about politics and race, because we were all poor. We played basketball together and we looked out for one another.

My experiences living on Modena Street, on Morehead Street, attending Highland Junior High in its final year, and the relationships formed playing basketball in the Gastonia City Parks, at Holbrook Middle School, at North Gaston High School, and my involvement with college basketball, have shaped who I am today and continue to fuel my pursuit of diversity, equity, and inclusion in everything I do. At the end of the day, I’m still a poor white kid just trying to make things better for my community.