Respecting your Culture

If you’re a soldier, you’re a soldier no matter what colour your skin is or what language you speak. We’re all treated, I guess, equally on the same basis. Interviewer: Were you always treated equally throughout all your time? Well that’s impossible. That wouldn’t be true. Now you can say that because there was times when you did get, you could get that feeling. When there’s only a minor, a minor it’s only a few that would, they’d take a run at yah sort of speaking. I guess, you know, because of who you were. No, there be times when I knew that the colour of my skin was a problem for them. You had to be strong, you know. You had to say, “Well I’m just as good as you are.” You know, that was my ambition. You don’t care how I look. Look at me what I am, not for what I look. Well, I think in the service you have to stand up for yourself and they teach you that, you know. You learn that from other people, don’t let other people walk all over you, because that’s not the way it works. Stand up for your rights. I think I’ve always been, in private life too. You know, if you’re going to call me down you better have a reason.