gotemcoach:KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR, IN HIS OWN WORDS:Harlem was an incredible place, the center of black
gotemcoach:KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR, IN HIS OWN WORDS:Harlem was an incredible place, the center of black culture, but we moved in 1950 to Inwood, where we were among the first black people. I remember my mom got harassed at the supermarket, the manager insisting that she was shoplifting—he wanted to inspect her bags, and she wouldn’t let him and caused a scene. She dragged me out of there and, in doing that, knocked over a display. I was waist high in loaves of bread.The Irish kids didn’t want us up there. The northern side of Dyckman Street was Irish, and the southern side was Jewish. I would walk from where I lived in the Dyckman projects up to P.S. 52—my mom decided that I could walk to school alone, but I had to walk right through the Irish section of the neighborhood. Later on, as an adult, I found out that she used to follow me, from a half-block behind, to make sure that nothing happened.#GotEmCoach -- source link