I Guess I Started Too

Start Where You Are, Use What You Have.

Racism Is Not An Excuse To Not Do The Best You Can.

If I Were To Say, 'god, Why Me?' About The Bad Things, Then I Should Have Said, 'god, Why Me?' About The Good Things That Happened In My Life.

There Were Times When I Asked Myself Whether I Was Being Principled Or Simply A Coward.... I Was Wrapped In The Cocoon Of Tennis Early In Life, Mainly By Blacks Like My Most Powerful Mentor, Dr. Robert Walter Johnson Of Lynchburg, Virginia. They Insisted That I Be Unfailingly Polite On The Court, Unfalteringly Calm And Detached, So That Whites Could Never Accuse Me Of Meanness. I Learned Well. I Look At Photographs Of The Skinny, Frail, Little Black Boy That I Was In The Early 1950s, And I See That I Was My Tennis Racquet And My Tennis Racquet Was Me. It Was My Rod And My Staff.

I Strongly Believe The Black Culture Spends Too Much Time, Energy And Effort Raising, Praising, And Teasing Our Black Children About The Dubious Glories Of Professional Sports.