Wendell Pierce

But like any young man, I wanted to be hard, too.

So I would turn up at all the house parties where the tough boys hung.

Yeah, they knew I wasn't one of them.

Them hard cases would come up to me and say, go home, schoolboy, you don't belong here.

Didn't realize at the time what they were doing for me.

As rough as that neighborhood could be,

We had us a community, nobody no victim, who didn't matter.

And now all we got is bodies and predatory like you.

And out where that girl fell, I saw kids acting like Omar, calling you by name, glorifying your .

Makes me sick how far we done fell.

Yes.

Yes.

There came a point, someone, during the course of the wire, people would challenge us all the time, you know, you are only demonstrating the thuggery and the crime and you're perpetuating this idea that...

the stereotype that black folks are criminally inclined and violent and all.

I remember a woman on the train challenging me, an African-American woman who worked on Wall Street.

And I said, I accept your criticism.

We should never lose the ability to be offended.

Never lose that ability.

So I welcome the challenge and the criticism so I can make sure that

that we don't fall victim to that criticism.