No, there was no profiling involved. They made their decisions and chose their paths. He always felt for them but he still never stopped trying to show them the right way despite what their parents had taught them. He once gave a kid his own leather belt when he told the kid he’d be suspended for having sagging pants and the kid began to cry. He asked why he cried and he said he had been asking his parents for a belt for a long time but they couldn’t afford one. So my dad gave him his.

Lo and behold this kid suddenly found a role model in my father and used to show up 2 hours prior to school (when my dad showed for work) and would stay an hour late just to be a gopher and learn life lessons.

By senior year he was earning grades that were going to get him in to college. Walked across the stage wearing the same belt he was gifted 3 years prior.