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Legacies Project Oral History: William Hampton

When: 2020

William Hampton was born in 1948 in Tyler, Texas, and his grandmother was the midwife. He remembers attending church revival picnics, the Texas Rose Festival, and the Juneteenth parade in his hometown. While attending college in Arlington, Texas, he was active in the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He went on to launch a Section 8 subsidized housing program in Arlington and in Ann Arbor, where he worked in the community development office. Mr. Hampton has been president of the Ann Arbor chapter of the NAACP since 2005.

William Hampton was interviewed by students from Skyline High School in Ann Arbor in 2015-16 as part of the Legacies Project.

Transcript

  • [00:00:09.22] [SIDE CONVERSATION]
  • [00:00:20.71] SPEAKER: You said you worked in the NAACP?
  • [00:00:23.23] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Yes, ma'am.
  • [00:00:25.37] SPEAKER: What is something that you are most proud of that you accomplished during that life?
  • [00:00:32.91] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, the thing that I'm most proud of is that we recognize people who otherwise wouldn't be recognized. Some of the kids we recognize, the special needs kids, who never get any kind of recognition. Also, some of the people who we've honored have grown on to be great professionals. There's this girl, her name was Kristen Harris. She graduated when you guys were born. She graduated in 1999. I'm sorry. Their age. Their age. And now she's a doctor at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut.
  • [00:01:18.22] SPEAKER: Oh lord.
  • [00:01:19.18] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Yeah. And she was one of our recipients.
  • [00:01:24.07] SPEAKER: One last question. This is kind of a more broad question, but--
  • [00:01:28.06] WILLIAM HAMPTON: The answer is yes, no, or maybe.
  • [00:01:32.43] SPEAKER: What are some words of wisdom you'd want our generation to know or hear?
  • [00:01:38.87] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well I'm not sure whether I can give you any words of wisdom. I think you guys are doing a fantastic job just being you. I guess if I had to say anything, I would say, don't ever let anybody else define who you are because people will. People will meet you one time and will say, I know exactly how she is. Or, I don't like him because he's a swimmer. Or, I don't like her because her parents are Catholic or Jewish. So don't ever let anybody else define you. You define yourself.
  • [00:02:08.77] SPEAKER: That's a very good piece of advice. Do you guys want to add anything?
  • [00:02:13.14] SPEAKER: I don't like you because you drive a Mini Coop.
  • [00:02:15.98] [SIDE CONVERSATION]
  • [00:02:28.30] SPEAKER: Probably pressed the Stop Record button.
  • [00:02:32.37] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I'm a little sad because I just have one more interview with you guys. I feel as if I've learned a lot from each and every one of you and I appreciate you guys' willingness to share things of a personal nature with each one of you. And I think that the assessment skill level that you have right now will carry each of you a long ways.
  • [00:03:01.05] SPEAKER: Thanks. It's been really fun working with you. Inspirational stories.
  • [00:03:07.88] [SIDE CONVERSATION]
  • [00:03:10.23] SPEAKER: We'll see you for our screening and scanning, screening, and the actual--
  • [00:03:16.13] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Will I get to see any of this?
  • [00:03:17.71] SPEAKER: Yes.
  • [00:03:18.05] SPEAKER: Oh, yeah! The screening at this--
  • [00:03:21.41] SPEAKER: We take all of these clips, these three hours that we were filming, and we break it down into three to five minutes.
  • [00:03:28.77] SPEAKER: I think we only watched the single topic on this screen.
  • [00:03:31.94] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Should I wear my dashiki to the next one? I'm just kidding.
  • [00:03:36.20] SPEAKER: If you want to!
  • [00:03:36.33] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I'm just kidding!
  • [00:03:36.85] SPEAKER: You can wear it to the screening party. Or bring it and then we can take a picture of it.
  • [00:03:39.93] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Lil, you know what a dashiki is?
  • [00:03:41.54] SPEAKER: I'm not sure I do.
  • [00:03:43.72] SPEAKER: You probably know what it looks like, you probably just don't know what it's called.
  • [00:03:47.03] WILLIAM HAMPTON: It's an African garment.
  • [00:03:49.06] SPEAKER: It's a shirt. It's like a cool. Shirt.
  • [00:03:51.24] SPEAKER: Oh. Yeah. I knew what it was. I know what it looks like.
  • [00:03:56.47] SPEAKER: There's a lady at my church who wears that.
  • [00:04:04.18] WILLIAM HAMPTON: They've become quite fashionable. They don't look like they used to, you know? I mean, people put a lot of jewels on them now and trinkets.
  • [00:04:12.76] SPEAKER: She got all of hers--
  • [00:04:13.76] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
  • [00:04:14.16] SPEAKER: We probably should get going because I want to get you downstairs before all the students come.
  • [00:04:17.23] WILLIAM HAMPTON: You want me out of here, right?
  • [00:04:18.46] SPEAKER: I don't--
  • [00:04:19.00] --my dad [INAUDIBLE] but my dad calls her Cozy because it's easier for them to remember and it's cuter. I just call her Kitten, really. I don't really call her Koza. No one really does. We just call her Baby or Kitten.
  • [00:04:31.87] WILLIAM HAMPTON: So how often you punish her with those shafts?
  • [00:04:37.13] SPEAKER: Yesterday was her first one and it was so bad. It literally went through the skin on the other side. It looks like she got pierced and it looked like she was bleeding bubble gum. It was really weird. And I had to hold her other paws. There was another lady who was like, hi, little fluffy kitten. And there's the technician lady, she was holding her so she would sit still, and then we got it in there. Oh, she's hated it but we have to go back in three weeks and get another one.
  • [00:05:04.19] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Did you cry?
  • [00:05:04.99] SPEAKER: Did I cry? No, but I'm like, oh my God, this poor kitten. Because my other cat, Zola, she doesn't act like that. She just kind of sits there. She looks terrified out of her mind. She looks like she's about to pee. But she literally just sits there and goes, I know it's coming. I know it's coming. Just do it. So she's a lot. She's a lot. But last few times we took her to the vet she pooped.
  • [00:05:24.98] SPEAKER: I need to hear the questions though.
  • [00:05:26.23] SPEAKER: She got really scared. They trimmed her nails for the first time.
  • [00:05:29.10] SPEAKER: It helps to hear the question so I know when to--
  • [00:05:30.27] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
  • [00:05:30.58] SPEAKER: I was really scared that my other kitten was going to poop. No, she just screeches.
  • [00:05:35.06] WILLIAM HAMPTON: How old is this kitten?
  • [00:05:36.50] SPEAKER: She's like nine weeks old.
  • [00:05:38.74] WILLIAM HAMPTON: OK.
  • [00:05:40.61] SPEAKER: But I love her though. She's annoying at time because when I'm trying to sleep she attacks me.
  • [00:05:46.78] SPEAKER: Oh, the new one?
  • [00:05:47.98] SPEAKER: Yeah. No, Zoey doesn't come in my room. My other cat. She doesn't like me.
  • [00:05:54.69] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Everybody likes you.
  • [00:05:56.54] SPEAKER: Not my cat.
  • [00:05:57.59] SPEAKER: [INAUDIBLE] all the way?
  • [00:06:05.00] SPEAKER: We're going to talk about-- you said, last interview, that you wanted to talk about, was it your niece?
  • [00:06:12.53] WILLIAM HAMPTON: [INAUDIBLE]?
  • [00:06:13.82] SPEAKER: Yes. Do you want to share anything about that? We don't really have any thought out things about this, do we?
  • [00:06:25.21] SPEAKER: No, because we wanted to let you explain how the story behind why you think this is important. Obviously, I think you said that you wished your niece--
  • [00:06:35.46] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Yeah.
  • [00:06:35.62] SPEAKER: I like your boots.
  • [00:06:37.24] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Thank you so much much.
  • [00:06:40.06] SPEAKER: You're fine. We're not recording yet. We're talking to him about his single topic.
  • [00:06:44.81] SPEAKER: Actually, you should do your interview right now.
  • [00:06:47.23] SPEAKER: Oh, OK.
  • [00:06:47.89] SPEAKER: The single topic is something that you guys kind of figure out.
  • [00:06:53.16] SPEAKER: Oh, I like your boots.
  • [00:06:54.56] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Oh, thank you.
  • [00:06:55.09] SPEAKER: I just noticed them. I'm like oh, my god. Trey, do you have boots like that?
  • [00:07:00.37] SPEAKER: No, my dad does.
  • [00:07:02.32] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Your dad does?
  • [00:07:03.13] SPEAKER: --take a pause but yeah, you don't want to necessarily do that today.
  • [00:07:08.04] SPEAKER: OK.
  • [00:07:08.59] SPEAKER: It's got to be more planful than doing it today.
  • [00:07:11.58] SPEAKER: We're not doing a single topic though, we're just going into other ideas.
  • [00:07:15.31] SPEAKER: Yeah, single topics.
  • [00:07:17.11] SPEAKER: That are outside of just the questions that were put on the thing.
  • [00:07:19.62] SPEAKER: Yeah, it was [INAUDIBLE].
  • [00:07:22.72] SPEAKER: No.
  • [00:07:23.63] SPEAKER: No?
  • [00:07:24.43] [SIDE CONVERSATION]
  • [00:07:25.66]
  • [00:07:26.98] SPEAKER: We just wanted to know, like, a story about why you want to do this topic, and anything else you want to add. And of the questions that we asked, are there any more that you wanted to add that weren't asked or you wanted to go deeper on-- anything like that you want to discuss. Because we don't, like-- the questions, is there anything you want to add? Just basically--
  • [00:07:50.74] WILLIAM HAMPTON: OK.
  • [00:07:51.89] SPEAKER: So yeah, if you wanted to talk about the organ donations, just give some background on where this subject came up in your life and how it affected you and your family, everyone around you.
  • [00:08:09.44] WILLIAM HAMPTON: OK. Now, you guys gave me two topics. You said I could expand on something that I've already talked about or I could talk about organ donations.
  • [00:08:16.95] SPEAKER: You can do both.
  • [00:08:17.57] SPEAKER: We have time.
  • [00:08:18.15] SPEAKER: Yeah, we have a lot of time.
  • [00:08:19.40] WILLIAM HAMPTON: OK. Let me start by expanding on something that you asked me once before.
  • [00:08:22.59] SPEAKER: Do you want to start recording?
  • [00:08:23.14] SPEAKER: It's recording.
  • [00:08:23.77] SPEAKER: Oh, OK. I wasn't sure.
  • [00:08:25.87] WILLIAM HAMPTON: And you asked me, what was the most significant thing that happened to me in my life? And I said, 9/11, which is accurate. But there are a lot of significant things that has happened to me in my life. In my life, I saw the youngest president get elected. I also saw a person become president of the United States that never was elected to either president or vice president. That was Gerald Ford. First one was John Kennedy.
  • [00:08:59.68] I saw the first resignation of an American president, that was Richard Nixon. These are pretty significant. I saw, for the second time in the history of the United States, a son and a father be elected president. Not in that order, but father and then son be elected. And I saw somebody who got elected as president of these United States of America who looked like me. And the ballot that I cast that morning, ironically here on Friday the 13th, was ballot numbers 666. So are those few other significant things that have happened to me in my life.
  • [00:09:42.53] SPEAKER: Trey's face, I was, like, what? He was, like--
  • [00:09:47.05] SPEAKER: He said 666, and I was like--
  • [00:09:51.44] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Not the medicine. 666, as everybody knows has several different meanings. One of them is connected with Friday the 13th as you know.
  • [00:10:03.68] SPEAKER: What are you thinking of, Trey? Would you like to share out loud?
  • [00:10:06.66] SPEAKER: No, because I realized it was Friday the 13th. And then he said the ballot that he cast was 666. And I was just, like, well, OK.
  • [00:10:21.67] SPEAKER: I thought you wanted to say something. That's why. Do you want to explain the background on why you think organ transplants are important and stuff like that? And then in the next interview, which will be, like, in the third try, is, like, when we really-- I know.
  • [00:10:39.49] [SIDE CONVERSATION]
  • [00:10:40.82]
  • [00:10:53.04] WILLIAM HAMPTON: So--
  • [00:10:53.52] SPEAKER: Yeah, could you introduce the idea though so we have it on film?
  • [00:10:56.67] WILLIAM HAMPTON: OK. I'm a certified organ donor. And it's marked on my driver's license saying I'm an organ donor. And there are several reasons why I'm an organ donor. The most personal reason is because my niece, who was born December 5, eight years ago, has somebody else's heart beating in her chest.
  • [00:11:28.45] She was less than a year old when her mom, who was a registered nurse then-- who's a physician's assistant now, noticed some labored breathing. So she took her first plane ride from Tyler, Texas to Dallas, Texas and had her checked out. And she had a failing heart.
  • [00:11:49.57] So she went on a donor list for a new heart. And she got the heart of a little boy who was killed in an automobile accident. And she is alive now because of that. Two years ago, they got to meet a donor family, which was a very emotional situation. Because, here's a family who lost their son, but caused somebody else to live as a result of his desire to donate his heart.
  • [00:12:19.10] And people who look like me need more organ transplants than any other race. But we donate less than anybody else. And the reason why is because there are a lot of things that are not true that's associated with organ donations. Like for example, some people believe that if you die, and you don't have all your body parts, you can't go to heaven.
  • [00:12:48.95] And that's unfortunate, because a lot of people are dying because people believe things that are not true, in my opinion. If that were the case, if you accidentally got your leg cut off in an accident, you couldn't go to heaven. If you lost one of your fingers in a tragedy, you couldn't go to Heaven, if that were true. And I don't believe it to be so. So that's why I'm an organ donor.
  • [00:13:19.54] SPEAKER: Is there any other ideas why people, like you said, that look like you, don't go organ donor. Is it because of stereotypes or something besides that?
  • [00:13:34.96] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, you know that's an excellent question. Thank you for asking me that. There's a fear among some folks, who look like me, that if some high profile person needs a liver or a heart or a kidney, that if you went into the hospital with some minor ailment or some minor malady, that somehow the hospital staff might cause your death-- because of the fact the high profile person is more worthy to live than you are. So a lot of people feel that way.
  • [00:14:18.84] SPEAKER: Do you believe that's true or not?
  • [00:14:22.82] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I don't believe it's true. I mean, but I do understand why people believe what they believe. Everybody is socialized differently. And different people have had different experiences in their lives. And there are situations where tragedies have happened to folks that shouldn't have, because of the fact that people don't value differences.
  • [00:14:53.22] SPEAKER: How old is your niece right now?
  • [00:14:56.29] WILLIAM HAMPTON: She'll be nine years old December 5.
  • [00:14:58.57] SPEAKER: Wow. She's really young.
  • [00:15:02.30] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Yeah, the unfortunate thing about heart transplants, just as a matter of full disclosure, heart transplants don't last forever. I think the median age, the median life of a new heart is about 15 years. So that means in about five or six more years, she'll be in in need of a new heart.
  • [00:15:23.88] The tragedy about that is that there's never been a person who has lived, who's had more than two heart transplants. So if you do the math, she's looking at a maximum age of about 30 years old. And I saw her when I was in Texas last summer.
  • [00:15:54.03] And she's a real active kid. And she's pretty precocious. And her mom said, I just want her to be happy because I'm not guaranteed her in my life for an extended period of time because of her heart situation. And it was a touching moment of terror, for me.
  • [00:16:19.90] SPEAKER: That's sad.
  • [00:16:20.89] SPEAKER: It really is, actually.
  • [00:16:22.87] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, the flip side of it is that she could be not alive right now. So even though she is-- and maybe there will be some medical miracle that happens between now and the next-- it's actually between now and next 20 years or so, because that's what she has in life expectancy median age from right now till she gets a new heart-- and then the life expectancy of that new heart.
  • [00:16:52.67] So she could be not alive. And the joy that she's bringing to her parents and to her older sister wouldn't be happening had she not gotten her heart transplant.
  • [00:17:06.43] SPEAKER: How old's her sister?
  • [00:17:09.43] WILLIAM HAMPTON: She is-- she probably wouldn't like me to say. So I'll just say she's more than 30.
  • [00:17:17.63] SPEAKER: OK. I didn't realize there was, like, that age difference.
  • [00:17:21.82] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, in my family, there's a wide variance of age.
  • [00:17:33.07] SPEAKER: No, my aunt and my uncle are, like, 15 years apart. And my mom and my uncle are the closest in age. So I know, like, there's age difference. I just like--
  • [00:17:48.35] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, there's nobody in my family who's close to me in age.
  • [00:17:51.49] SPEAKER: Oh. My sister is close to me in age.
  • [00:17:54.51] SPEAKER: Quite close?
  • [00:17:55.75] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Is that the one who's older than you?
  • [00:17:57.70] SPEAKER: Yeah.
  • [00:17:57.97] WILLIAM HAMPTON: But you're more mature than she is.
  • [00:17:59.34] SPEAKER: Yeah. I haven't seen her that much this week though. I mean, she's been like-- I don't even know where she is right now. I think she might be with her friend.
  • [00:18:11.48] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I can tell you're missing her.
  • [00:18:14.02] SPEAKER: I do. I like spending time with my sister. But I also like having the time apart. So she gives me time to actually miss her. Because, like, she at first was originally gonna go away to college. And she was, like, you're gonna miss me when I'm not here. And I'm, like, yeah, but give me a chance to miss you before I can actually miss you.
  • [00:18:32.93] SPEAKER: Is there any other topics that you would like to discuss that you think are really important to focus on? So you can get ideas of single topics to talk about.
  • [00:18:43.98] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, I think that it's important to talk about differences. Because it's been my experience that even if you are on different ends of the spectrum from somebody else, a one-on-one sharing conversation will show you that you have something in common with almost everybody. So to value and respect differences is a good thing.
  • [00:19:07.77] I mean, there's no, and there should not be, a one size fits all America. I mean, doesn't have to be the same. Everybody doesn't have to think the same. And you can have some real good creative conversations and learn more from somebody you disagree with than you can somebody that you agree with.
  • [00:19:25.35] That doesn't mean you want to talk to somebody who invalidates your point of view. But you want somebody that can let you know why they might feel differently about a subject than you do. As long as there's good logical rationale, whether I change my mind or not, I learned something.
  • [00:19:45.67] SPEAKER: Do you have anything that you want him to expand on? I'm sure there are a lot of different things.
  • [00:19:49.63] SPEAKER: You already talked a lot about families. I can tell that's very important to you.
  • [00:19:55.06] WILLIAM HAMPTON: You have great assessment skills, if you knew that. My family is very important to me.
  • [00:19:59.96] SPEAKER: So I was wondering if you wanted to elaborate anymore about your childhood life with your father and mother? And also, like, around your wedding years-- around that time period-- like, Esther. I'm sorry. I'm bad at articulating things when I'm on the spot.
  • [00:20:25.35] WILLIAM HAMPTON: No, you're good. My formulative years, created the basis for who I am right now. That doesn't mean I'm exactly like how I was when I was in my formulative years. Because I think, part of living, is growing. And part of growing is reevaluating, reassessing, taking a look inside of you and finding out what parts of you may need improvement. And when you're like me, there's always lots of things that needs improvement.
  • [00:21:03.28] There has to be a willingness to want to do it though, because change is difficult. And the older somebody gets, the more difficult it is to change. But if you change, you get along much better. Because the world is not gonna change for me, I have to make changes for the world.
  • [00:21:24.79] I was watching television the other night and I saw this guy making a phone call at the airport on a payphone. Pay phones now are almost obsolete. Do you guys know of any payphones that's located anywhere? When I was your age, there were payphones everywhere. But when my dad was my age, my dad was the age I was when payphones were more prevalent. There were very few phones.
  • [00:21:53.34] Because he was 42 years old when I was born-- almost 42. So the world does change. And like the question you asked me about the big difference between where I work now and when I started, there were lots of file cabinets. Now, file cabinets are almost obsolete. I see you guys got one over there.
  • [00:22:19.30] In that one file cabinet, which is not a small file cabinet, four drawers, you could get more information on a single storage disk than you can get in that whole file cabinet.
  • [00:22:38.29] SPEAKER: When you said a single disk, you know it's the one with the SD card?
  • [00:22:42.71] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Yeah. When I first started doing a little bit of videotaping, there was a machine called a beta machine, which I thought was just awesome at the time. But looking back at it-- it's obsolete now, but it was state of the art at that time. It was much bigger than this machine right here, and it was supposed be portable.
  • [00:23:13.84] It was portable, but if you didn't have a couple of small muscles, you couldn't carry it around. So things do change. And I think things change for the better. I think it's unfortunate that things like outer space and the moon have not been explored more than they have. Because I think there is critical knowledge out there that's yet unexplored.
  • [00:23:42.08] And I can't wait till you guys are old enough to start doing this exploration so we can find out all we need to know about those other places. I believe it's a good possibility that life does exist someplace else, other than here on earth. That's my opinion.
  • [00:23:59.66] SPEAKER: I think the universe is so big that it's almost impossible for no other lifeforms to be on it.
  • [00:24:04.88] WILLIAM HAMPTON: You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. It's unfortunate that a lot of folks use religion as a rationale for saying there's no other life. And I think that-- I do understand why they feel that way, but I have a different opinion. If you believe this was created by God, why not believe that God created something else as well?
  • [00:24:38.74] SPEAKER: We can't be the only life form, we'd just be lonely in a huge universe. I'm pretty sure there's something else, somewhere else. We just don't know where it's at yet. He put it far enough that we won't find it.
  • [00:24:49.32] SPEAKER: We might be God's first creation, but that doesn't mean we're His only.
  • [00:24:52.44] SPEAKER: Exactly, preach.
  • [00:24:53.52] WILLIAM HAMPTON: We may not even be God's first creation. We don't know.
  • [00:24:56.61] SPEAKER: Exactly.
  • [00:24:57.66] WILLIAM HAMPTON: We don't know. I get criticized for saying this a lot. But the Bible was translated from Hebrew to Greek to English, or the reverse of that, and some words in certain languages you can't translate and make them have the same meaning. You can translate them, but they don't have exactly the same meaning.
  • [00:25:24.12] So if you take the Bible, for example, of all the books in the Bible, there's only two books in their named for women, Esther and Ruth. And if you look at the most significant last change in the Bible, It was by a guy named King James.
  • [00:25:43.20] And at the time, there were a lot of bias against woman. So it does stand to reason that some of that bias may have resulted in the elimination of certain significant women that could have been in the Bible, had He chose to put 'em there.
  • [00:26:09.99] SPEAKER: I didn't even think of that. When you said there was only two, I was thinking in my head like-- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and the writing. And I was, like--
  • [00:26:16.66] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Listen to this guy, boy.
  • [00:26:17.93] SPEAKER: Well, his family-- they go to church.
  • [00:26:20.57] SPEAKER: My family's real-- we're really religious.
  • [00:26:21.47] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Are you apostolic?
  • [00:26:23.49] SPEAKER: I'm Baptist.
  • [00:26:24.40] WILLIAM HAMPTON: You are? OK.
  • [00:26:27.39] SPEAKER: I'm not.
  • [00:26:27.81] SPEAKER: We go to church like-- my grandma made me-- like when I go over to my grandma's house, she's, like, what's the books of the Bible? And I'm just, like--
  • [00:26:38.24] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Did you know there was only two books in the Bible named for women?
  • [00:26:40.79] SPEAKER: No, until you said that and I was just, like, going over in my head and I was, like, wow.
  • [00:26:44.33] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Let me guess, you thought Leviticus was a woman? I'm just kidding.
  • [00:26:48.15] SPEAKER: No, you're right. I'm actually curious.
  • [00:26:49.55] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I'm just kidding.
  • [00:26:50.26] SPEAKER: Like, really?
  • [00:26:51.88] SPEAKER: I never knew who Leviticus was.
  • [00:26:54.19] SPEAKER: I mean, I don't know every person-- I don't know every person from the Bible. I'm Catholic, so we used to go to church, like, from when I was baptized to when I was confirmed. After my mom's parents died, we barely go anymore because my mom just can't do it. She just gets so emotional, and she cries every single time.
  • [00:27:28.17] SPEAKER: That's my dad [INAUDIBLE].
  • [00:27:29.04] SPEAKER: So she just doesn't like going because it's just, like, she doesn't want to cry about it anymore. Because she knows they're happy and everything, so she's just, like, there's no point in crying over it. She goes, like, I'll watch church on TV.
  • [00:27:44.09] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, since you asked me a lot of questions, let me ask you one, since you're Catholic. Looking back at history and noticing that it took up until 1960 before America could elect a Catholic president-- and learned all the bias connected with all the folks who didn't like him just because he was Catholic--
  • [00:28:02.82] SPEAKER: The Catholic president was?
  • [00:28:04.50] WILLIAM HAMPTON: John F. Kennedy.
  • [00:28:05.79] SPEAKER: That's what I thought too.
  • [00:28:07.23] WILLIAM HAMPTON: John Fitzgerald Kennedy. I'm wondering if you could share some insights with me as to how does it feel being a Catholic, knowing those kind of biases existed against your religion?
  • [00:28:21.66] SPEAKER: I mean, I think that there are a lot of things that I know about religion and bias because my dad is Jewish and my mom is Catholic.
  • [00:28:31.94] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Yeah, you told me.
  • [00:28:33.14] SPEAKER: And so there's a lot of stuff in the religion that my mom doesn't agree with because of my dad. And I think a lot people don't really understand what being Catholic-- how is that different than being Christian because of say-- they're, like, I don't get it.
  • [00:28:52.91] And I'm, like, well, think about it this was. Every Catholic's a Christian, not every Christian is a Catholic. And they're, like, that doesn't make sense to me. And I'm, like, being Catholic is a branch under being Christian. It's a branch of Christianity. And we don't believe in all the same things. There might be a little bit of discrimination against same sex marriage, but we have people who are lesbian and gay?
  • [00:29:17.32] WILLIAM HAMPTON: A little bit of discrimination?
  • [00:29:19.34] SPEAKER: Well, I'm saying for my church, my community. We have people who are lesbian and we have people who are gay that go to our church, that sit next to priest and be his helper for the day. So my church, personally, is a very welcoming church. And they're very, like, open.
  • [00:29:40.48] SPEAKER: I'm going to your church. My church is not open at all.
  • [00:29:44.52] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I think most churches is not open. I mean, if you take a good look at organized religion, no matter what the religion-- I was watching-- have you ever heard of a guy named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar?
  • [00:29:56.19] SPEAKER: The name sounds really familiar.
  • [00:29:57.14] WILLIAM HAMPTON: He was a basketball player. He's a leading-- he scored more points while he was playing than anybody else in the history of basketball.
  • [00:30:06.12] SPEAKER: My dad-- that's why I remember, because my dad was telling me about him.
  • [00:30:09.00] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, when he became a Muslim, he became disconnected with his parents because they weren't Muslim. And it wasn't until he got married the second time that his wife, who was a Buddhist-- is that my phone? I thought I turned this thing off. I better turn it off again. That's weird. I apologize. I got do not disturb on here.
  • [00:30:48.71] Anyway, so his second wife, who was a Buddhist, told him the value of keeping your parents in your life, whether you agree with them totally or not. So in every form of organized religion, there are some things that could be corrected in my opinion.
  • [00:31:06.81] SPEAKER: Yeah, I agree with that. My grandparents, both of them were very welcoming to the idea. My mom's, like, I don't think Grandpa is so much worried about your dad's religion as much as he worried about the age difference between us-- because my parents are 11 years apart.
  • [00:31:22.16] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Wow. Who's older, your mom or your dad?
  • [00:31:25.08] SPEAKER: My dad.
  • [00:31:25.45] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Don't answer that question. But, you know, I know somebody who got married in 1987. And she was Catholic and he was Jewish. And they had to really search high and low to find somebody that would marry them--
  • [00:31:40.63] SPEAKER: Oh, really?
  • [00:31:41.37] WILLIAM HAMPTON: --and perform the ceremony. Yep. And they ended up having a dual service, a rabbi and a priest, who married them. And the guy who decided to perform the ceremony, up until the last moment, kept-- they had written their own wedding vows. So he kept those wedding vows. And when he finally changed his mind about 10 years later, he used that ceremony to perform his first Jewish/Catholic wedding, which infuriated them even more.
  • [00:32:17.10] SPEAKER: I don't think my parents had so much of a problem finding someone to marry them because it was like, 1994, when they got married.
  • [00:32:26.06] WILLIAM HAMPTON: You think that's a lot of difference between 1987 and 1994?
  • [00:32:28.85] SPEAKER: I mean, it might be where they got married too. They got married Greenfield Village in Michigan.
  • [00:32:36.00] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, these people that I'm talking about was from one of the liberal bastions of progressiveness, Ann Arbor, Michigan. And they couldn't find to perform their wedding ceremony.
  • [00:32:50.94] SPEAKER: I don't know how difficult my parents found it. I think because, like-- I think they probably found the priest that my grandparents--
  • [00:32:58.87] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I bet if you talked to your mom and dad separately, under full disclosure, they'll you some things that will surprise you about the bias they had to endure, just because they loved each other and wanted to get married.
  • [00:33:09.60] SPEAKER: My parents eloped.
  • [00:33:11.28] SPEAKER: My parents are-- I think most people's opinions that they cared about-- I know there are always gonna be people who are biased against my parents being married. But I haven't met people who-- like adults or kids my age, who have been, like, that's wrong, your parents shouldn't be together. I've gotten asked really weird questions.
  • [00:33:34.01] WILLIAM HAMPTON: But they wouldn't say that, you know?
  • [00:33:36.87] SPEAKER: No, but you have those people who would.
  • [00:33:38.88] WILLIAM HAMPTON: You have good assessment skills. You can tell when somebody feels uncomfortable. A person doesn't have to say, I don't like you, for you to know that they don't.
  • [00:33:49.38] SPEAKER: I don't really associate with people who have strong differences between-- by a different religion, should it mix and everything. And my dad's not a really religious person. And my mom is not as religious as her parents were.
  • [00:34:03.44] WILLIAM HAMPTON: How about your dad and mom's daughter? How about her?
  • [00:34:07.56] SPEAKER: Me?
  • [00:34:08.04] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Yeah.
  • [00:34:10.02] SPEAKER: Well, I mean they had two daughters so.
  • [00:34:14.34] WILLIAM HAMPTON: The most mature one.
  • [00:34:16.92] SPEAKER: I mean, I don't have really-- I don't have a problem with it. Since my dad wasn't very religious, I grew up in the Catholic church. I mean, I know my parents had to switch churches because the priest there wasn't as welcoming, because of my dad being Jewish. And my dad felt very uncomfortable going to that church.
  • [00:34:38.67] He didn't really go to church with us either, only on like first Sunday or something he would come to church with us. But that was rare. But, you know, my mom doesn't want to make him do anything that he's uncomfortable with. And he won't make her do anything she's uncomfortable with.
  • [00:34:51.67] And my dad's, like, your parents are more religious, and you're more religious than I am. And usually, he goes, like, and I'm definitely OK with my kids growing up in the Catholic religion.
  • [00:35:01.80] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Do you think that if this, what we're saying right now, were made part of a YouTube channel that you'd get a lot of negative feedback-- we would get a lot of negative feedback about this conversation?
  • [00:35:13.74] SPEAKER: Yeah.
  • [00:35:14.42] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I do too.
  • [00:35:15.17] SPEAKER: Yeah, I do.
  • [00:35:16.01] WILLIAM HAMPTON: So make sure you edit all this out.
  • [00:35:17.52] SPEAKER: Can I interrupt real quick?
  • [00:35:19.14] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Yes, ma'am.
  • [00:35:19.72] SPEAKER: About this topic-- so we're kind of talking a little bit about adversity. So I was wondering if you wanted to share one piece of wisdom that you had about adversity, that us high school students will experience through our lives and how we should deal with it.
  • [00:35:37.23] SPEAKER: That's a good question
  • [00:35:38.49] SPEAKER: I've dealt with a lot of adversity.
  • [00:35:40.13] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, you know, that is a good question. I probably should be asking you guys that question, instead of me. Because, you know, times have changed. There are a lot of things that I experienced that you guys won't ever experience. You know, not because there are not still prejudices out there, not because there's not biases out there, but because the laws of changed.
  • [00:36:04.60] I mean, when I was a little boy, it was legal to have separate schools. When I was a little boy, it was legal to have people who looked like me to not go into restaurants. When I was a little boy, it was legal for me not to go to the church down the road, even though it was closer to my house.
  • [00:36:26.56] In fact, they still say the most segregated place in the world is a church on Sunday.
  • [00:36:32.02] SPEAKER: Oh, I definitely agree with that.
  • [00:36:34.41] SPEAKER: My church, it's not even-- like, we don't get diverse. You see the same thing every day.
  • [00:36:41.71] WILLIAM HAMPTON: But to your point, even somebody who looks like you, if they were homeless, probably wouldn't be welcome in your church. They'd be welcome during the food drives. But if they just showed up in your church and walked in and took a seat in the back-- I've seen this happen. What are they doing here?
  • [00:37:00.94] SPEAKER: I've seen that happen in church.
  • [00:37:01.78] WILLIAM HAMPTON: You know, come in and take a seat in the back of the church not hurting anybody. And the pastor says, sir, could we help you? That's why I'm here. I'm here for my salvation.
  • [00:37:14.97] SPEAKER: My pastor is like-- when somebody like that, who needs a church family, comes in, he's very open. He's, like, yes, you can be a part of our church. It's more like the congregation in itself. Like, people judging other people. Like, what are they doing here? But my pastor's, like, anybody's welcome in my church.
  • [00:37:29.44] WILLIAM HAMPTON: So to that point right there, did you think he evolved into being that way, or do you think he's always been that way?
  • [00:37:35.66] SPEAKER: I think he's always been that way. My mom told me, when she was growing up-- when she was growing up, he wasn't the pastor. There was a different pastor. But he was, like, under the pastor or whatever. And my mom said he was always, like, Pastor Hendricks was always very open and very kind to everybody.
  • [00:37:52.90] No matter what race, gender, sexuality and stuff, he was very open and very welcoming to everybody. I mean, he's so nice. He's funny too. I play football, and I'm very bulky. And he come up to me, and he was, like, didn't I tell you to stop taking them steroids?
  • [00:38:13.27] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Now I can relate a lot of biases, a lot of adversity that I've gone through in my life. But most of those-- that is a good question. Most of those wouldn't happen now. Some of them would, but they wouldn't-- most of them.
  • [00:38:32.90] I have been racially profiled by police. But because of body cams and camera phones, some of that's being eliminated. I have been told I had to shave my beard off because I might-- a little old lady might not feel comfortable with me having a beard. Like, that's gonna make me a terrorist if I have a beard.
  • [00:39:00.13] I've been told that I couldn't-- you guys probably don't know what a dashiki is. I've been I couldn't wear my dashiki to work because it was too racially divisive.
  • [00:39:11.68] SPEAKER: Is it--
  • [00:39:13.99] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Is it divisive?
  • [00:39:14.98] SPEAKER: No, I was wanting to know what it was.
  • [00:39:21.55] WILLIAM HAMPTON: It's like a shirt. It has a--
  • [00:39:25.75] SPEAKER: Oh.
  • [00:39:25.96] SPEAKER: Oh, I know what you're talking about.
  • [00:39:27.65] SPEAKER: Was this recently that you were told that you can't do these things?
  • [00:39:30.67] WILLIAM HAMPTON: No. This was a long time ago, a long time. That's why I say I should be asking you guys this instead of me. I've been told that-- you guys ever heard of Malcolm X?
  • [00:39:41.35] SPEAKER: Yeah.
  • [00:39:41.58] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I used to have a calendar in my office of Malcolm X. And I was asked to take it down because it caused fear to some of the women in the office. I was even told once that-- I had a-- you know what a glamour shot is?
  • [00:40:06.52] You know what a glamour shot is? A glamour shot is where you take-- you go into a photography place and you take a picture. And they make you look like a movie star. They make you look glamorous.
  • [00:40:18.54] SPEAKER: We have selfies.
  • [00:40:20.41] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Yeah. My wife took some of those pictures and gave them to me. They were very nice. And a lady came into my office and filed a sexual discrimination suit against me for having my wife with a glamour shot on my desk and work.
  • [00:40:39.35] SPEAKER: Why?
  • [00:40:40.29] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Because she said it was painting women like objects and not like real people.
  • [00:40:47.72] SPEAKER: A picture? Having a picture?
  • [00:40:49.16] WILLIAM HAMPTON: The picture, yeah.
  • [00:40:50.74] SPEAKER: OK, well then my parents have to take down every single picture that they have of me in their offices if it's not OK anymore. Like, I think that's a little ridiculous. That's your wife. And you love your wife. It's not like you're doing it like, oh, she's mine. You're proud of who she is.
  • [00:41:08.34] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, that's what I thought. But what I tried to do is try to figure out the basis for the reasoning. I didn't agree, but I had to figure out the basis of the reasoning. And one more. There was a woman who worked for me at one time. And she came to work one week and she had a different name. So trying to be engaging, I said, did you get married over the weekend or did you revert back to your maiden name?
  • [00:41:37.86] SPEAKER: Just out of respect to make sure you called her by the right name?
  • [00:41:40.53] WILLIAM HAMPTON: That's what I thought. She said, I'm very offended. She said, "maiden name" is a term invented by men to oppress women. It has absolutely nothing to do with a woman's situation before or after she gets married. She said, in fact, I don't even have to take on my husband's name. I could just keep my own name if I wanted to.
  • [00:42:04.54] SPEAKER: That's what my mom did. She kept her last name.
  • [00:42:07.29] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, so this is what I said. I said, well, what would you prefer that I say? She said, birth name. So with her, I started using birth name. But if I just wanted to be contentious, I could have said, your birth name is your father's name. He was a male. So why is that not the same kind of oppression? But I didn't say that.
  • [00:42:28.95] SPEAKER: But, no that's good. That's good.
  • [00:42:30.27] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I didn't say that. I didn't say it.
  • [00:42:33.89] SPEAKER: If my dad was here, he would be going, like, this-- oh, please tell me you didn't say that. Oh, please tell me you didn't say that.
  • [00:42:38.97] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I did think it.
  • [00:42:39.72] SPEAKER: That's what I pull on my sister. Because my sister and her boyfriend or whatever, they had a child. And my niece took on her father's name. Her name wasn't Jada Ray Hall Gregory, it's Jada Ray Ward.
  • [00:42:54.74] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, I think the choices people make in their lives, it's fine because it's their choice. It was their lives. Nobody died and said, William, you in charge now so I want you tell everybody else what to do and how to do it. Maybe that's the it was once upon a time. But it's not like that anymore.
  • [00:43:12.13] SPEAKER: Exactly.
  • [00:43:12.75] SPEAKER: And as a woman-- like, from a woman's standpoint, I find some of that claims that were set--
  • [00:43:20.89] SPEAKER: Are you leaving?
  • [00:43:22.48] SPEAKER: OK. Well, go, Dan, run.
  • [00:43:25.73] SPEAKER: Bye, Dan, love you.
  • [00:43:27.26] WILLIAM HAMPTON: All you guys are ordering him around.
  • [00:43:29.58] SPEAKER: We love Dan. Dan's so nice.
  • [00:43:31.50] SPEAKER: Dan's really tall.
  • [00:43:32.80] SPEAKER: Yeah. He's so nice.
  • [00:43:35.10] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Go and get Ms. Jenkins, and do it right away.
  • [00:43:38.57] SPEAKER: But he's so nice.
  • [00:43:38.99] SPEAKER: Oh, he said, please, though. He said, please.
  • [00:43:40.50] SPEAKER: I said, please. If I didn't say please, Dan, he probably wouldn't.
  • [00:43:44.07] SPEAKER: But I think, from a female standpoint, some of the claims are ridiculous. I would think it's sweet that my dad has-- like, I know my dad does, knowing my dad. Because he loves my mom so much, I know my dad has a picture of my mom up on his desk. Like, I think that's sweet. And I think that's cute.
  • [00:44:02.40] I love when teachers have pictures of their kids and everything. Like, the corkboard next to my mom's desk, there's several pictures of me and my sister. And it's just, like-- I don't get that point. I understand for some people, they might take it to extremes. But I think there's some things that sound a little more ridiculous. And I bet you if she explained it to me, I'd probably still think it's ridiculous. I mean, it's a picture. It's a picture.
  • [00:44:29.22] WILLIAM HAMPTON: But to that point though--
  • [00:44:30.27] SPEAKER: My dad has a whole collage.
  • [00:44:32.94] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I was talking to a lady once upon a time and she told me-- I asked her about-- if you hurt somebody, are you still responsible? And she told me a story of a little bunny rabbit. And that whole picture is embedded in my head. So playing devil's advocate, if I had pictures on my wall of all my kids, and I had three. They were prominently in my office.
  • [00:45:00.50] You had the office next door and you and your husband had been trying to have kids for 10 years and had been unsuccessful. And you just really were hurt because you guys weren't able to produce kids. Wouldn't you be a little bit-- not bothered, but sensitive about everybody talking about their kids all the time and you don't have kids to talk about?
  • [00:45:19.49] SPEAKER: I mean, I can understand the sensitivity. But it's just like--
  • [00:45:23.18] SPEAKER: You can't force somebody to take their pictures down.
  • [00:45:25.91] SPEAKER: It's not-- their pictures aren't-- they're not purposely trying to hurt you or trying to make you feel the sadness, or trying to make you act out the way they do. It's that their allowed to show the love for the kids that they have. Like, what if they did have kids though?
  • [00:45:43.72] WILLIAM HAMPTON: So how do you feel about the bunny rabbit story?
  • [00:45:47.87] SPEAKER: Bunny rabbit?
  • [00:45:49.71] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Yeah. If you saw a little bunny rabbit crossing the road, and you swerved to miss it and you had a head-on collision with somebody. And that person end up dead, but the little bunny rabbit was still living. Wouldn't you feel at least good about the fact that the poor little bunny rabbit still had his life?
  • [00:46:07.67] SPEAKER: I think that the bunny-- oh. That's tough on me because I love animals.
  • [00:46:14.19] SPEAKER: I feel like we talked about this. And we decided that a human's life is more--
  • [00:46:19.00] SPEAKER: Important than a bunny rabbit's.
  • [00:46:21.13] WILLIAM HAMPTON: But see, you don't know--
  • [00:46:21.99] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
  • [00:46:22.08] SPEAKER: --swerving, I would just stop.
  • [00:46:22.59] WILLIAM HAMPTON: --the person that told me this story though.
  • [00:46:23.86] SPEAKER: Yes, I do remember that story.
  • [00:46:27.62] SPEAKER: I think you're responsible for what you do. Technically, you're not supposed to stop for squirrels or bunnies or stuff like that. Technically you're not supposed to. My friend, when she's driving-- she'll drive and there's a squirrel crossing and she'll stop. And there's nobody behind us. But she'll just honk the horn.
  • [00:46:45.52] SPEAKER: Is it Talley?
  • [00:46:46.18] SPEAKER: Yes.
  • [00:46:46.72] SPEAKER: I figured it was Talley.
  • [00:46:48.31] SPEAKER: And Emma both do that.
  • [00:46:50.95] WILLIAM HAMPTON: My wife loves insects, animals, birds. If there's a spider in the house, she won't kill it. She'll take a cup and pick it up and take it outside.
  • [00:47:03.34] SPEAKER: For me it depends on how big of the spider it is.
  • [00:47:06.87] SPEAKER: I try to be nice.
  • [00:47:07.49] SPEAKER: My basement isn't complete, so it's like concrete a little bit. So I was walking down the stairs one time. And there was a big spider web. I ran into it. And the spider was on my face. So I was just, like-- I killed it. And the spider was pretty big. It depends on the size of the spider.
  • [00:47:21.53] SPEAKER: It depends on how far away from the door I am.
  • [00:47:23.77] WILLIAM HAMPTON: So how much remorse did you have for that?
  • [00:47:26.23] SPEAKER: Not a lot, because it was a really big spider and it was on my face. I thought it was just the web. But then I slapped it. And I was just, like, it was a spider on my face.
  • [00:47:35.95] WILLIAM HAMPTON: See those shoes over there? Those Converse All-Stars.
  • [00:47:39.00] SPEAKER: Yeah.
  • [00:47:39.65] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Those were popular when I was a kid. And now they're popular again.
  • [00:47:42.55] SPEAKER: They're popular for Leo. It's, like, Leo's whole closet. We're talking about your Converse.
  • [00:47:50.16] SPEAKER: Going back to the adversity-- no it's fine. I'm just going back to this topic. How did you handle it? Or how did you react when these people told you, like, you can't have these photos and you can't wear this kind of shirt?
  • [00:48:01.63] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, I'll tell you how I reacted to some of them. For example, the beard thing, I was in college the first time that it happened to me. And because I had no power, no leverage, I just quit my job. So I couldn't do anything else, you know? I didn't have any money to file a lawsuit. The second time it happened to me, I ended up in litigation. And I won.
  • [00:48:31.82] SPEAKER: What is litigation?
  • [00:48:32.79] SPEAKER: Is that, like, a lawsuit?
  • [00:48:33.76] WILLIAM HAMPTON: What is litigation?
  • [00:48:34.33] SPEAKER: Yeah.
  • [00:48:34.60] WILLIAM HAMPTON: It's a lawsuit.
  • [00:48:35.50] SPEAKER: OK. Just wanted to double check. I just wanted to make sure.
  • [00:48:39.04] WILLIAM HAMPTON: It's a legal-- it doesn't always have to be a lawsuit, it could be a legal maneuver. But mine was a lawsuit. You know, can you guys tell that really enjoy talking to y'all?
  • [00:48:53.66] SPEAKER: Yes.
  • [00:48:54.35] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I do, you know?
  • [00:48:55.49] SPEAKER: You wouldn't talk as much if you weren't enjoying it.
  • [00:48:57.50] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Am I talking too much?
  • [00:48:58.59] SPEAKER: No.
  • [00:48:59.15] WILLIAM HAMPTON: OK, great.
  • [00:48:59.78] SPEAKER: I'm saying that there's some people that we've heard, like, saying, oh, she's really nervous and she does-- or they just don't talk a lot. And I'm, like, oh, I'm so glad we have someone who talks and who's a good story-teller.
  • [00:49:10.82] SPEAKER: My one friend said her person-- she asked her about her childhood and she didn't remember and she barely talks, and I was just like, well, my person remembered his childhood. I love my guy.
  • [00:49:20.34] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, I like an exchange as opposed to me talking. That's better. Do you guys know who Edward Everett was?
  • [00:49:31.69] SPEAKER: OK, these names sound so familiar.
  • [00:49:33.64] SPEAKER: Is that the guy who was a whistleblower?
  • [00:49:37.03] WILLIAM HAMPTON: No, Edward Everett--
  • [00:49:38.55] SPEAKER: A whistleblower?
  • [00:49:39.54] SPEAKER: Isn't that the name for someone who leaks government information.
  • [00:49:46.47] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Edward Everett ever was Secretary of State in the Fillmore administration. He was also governor of the state of Massachusetts, and a senator also, from Massachusetts. You guys have heard of the Gettysburg Address, right?
  • [00:50:01.82] SPEAKER: Yeah.
  • [00:50:02.06] SPEAKER: Yes.
  • [00:50:03.59] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Abraham Lincoln was not the keynote speaker at the Gettysburg Address. It was Edward Everett.
  • [00:50:09.30] SPEAKER: That's why you know, because of history.
  • [00:50:12.68] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Edward Everett spoke for over two hours without notes. But nobody remembers his name. But you remember Abraham Lincoln's name. He gave a 256-word Gettysburg Address that we all remember. And nobody remembers Edward Everett. So I try, if I'm speaking somewhere, I try to have it engaging. I like to ask the audience some questions or be interactive. As opposed to me just standing there and talking. I never liked that when I was you guys' age, and I don't like it now.
  • [00:50:45.68] SPEAKER: I hate presenting stuff for school, just sitting there talking and having the class just staring at me. It's so, like, not interactive. They're just looking at me like, would you just shut-up?
  • [00:50:59.33] SPEAKER: Actually there are times where I'm talking and presenting something. And then I have people talking. I think it was last year, McKenna and I were up and we were giving freshmen an idea of what it was like to be in CMPP and why you think you should join it.
  • [00:51:19.43] WILLIAM HAMPTON: What'd you call it?
  • [00:51:20.57] SPEAKER: CMPP.
  • [00:51:21.62] SPEAKER: The magnet program we're in.
  • [00:51:22.40] SPEAKER: This magnet program, CMPP.
  • [00:51:24.26] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I thought you were saying something else.
  • [00:51:26.41] SPEAKER: Communications Media and Public Policy.
  • [00:51:28.13] WILLIAM HAMPTON: OK.
  • [00:51:29.21] SPEAKER: And why they should join this magnet that we're in. And we had them answer some questions, saying give us a thumbs up or thumbs down. Like, do you do this or do you not want to do this or something like that. And there was a lot of conversation in between each question.
  • [00:51:48.08] And McKenna and I were just starting to get a little bit frustrated. Because you guys have a lesson to get to, we have to get back to a class. And so the teacher wasn't really doing anything, because he was letting us take charge of the class. So McKenna is, like, excuse me. And no one's really listening. And I'm, like, you know what guys? We'll just wait till you're done with your conversation. We'll just wait. I get that from my mom.
  • [00:52:15.68] SPEAKER: I walked out. They were having a conversation. I was, like, I guess the presentation's over. He was, like, wait, no, you're not done. Well, nobody's listening so.
  • [00:52:24.95] SPEAKER: We said this beforehand too. The second time we did it, we said, we know this may not be the most interesting presentation that you've ever been in, but the quieter you guys are, the quicker we can get this done and the sooner we can get out and not bore you guys to death.
  • [00:52:40.96] WILLIAM HAMPTON: You know, you sound kind of like a mom.
  • [00:52:43.20] SPEAKER: Yeah, people tell me I'm the mom of my friends.
  • [00:52:45.46] SPEAKER: She is.
  • [00:52:46.37] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Did I answer your question about adversity?
  • [00:52:48.43] SPEAKER: Oh, yeah. Sure.
  • [00:52:50.15] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I mean, you know, I could bore you to death with stories about adversity, because I've had a lot of them
  • [00:52:58.01] SPEAKER: You don't bore us. You're a good story-teller.
  • [00:52:59.84] SPEAKER: You're a good story-teller.
  • [00:53:00.62] SPEAKER: You're a great story-teller. We don't mind you telling us stories. It's interesting.
  • [00:53:05.27] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, good. So did you like the story about the bunny rabbit? You know who told me that--
  • [00:53:11.21] SPEAKER: That one made me sad.
  • [00:53:12.39] WILLIAM HAMPTON: You know who told me that story?
  • [00:53:13.64] SPEAKER: Who?
  • [00:53:15.67] WILLIAM HAMPTON: You know who Gordon Hathaway is?
  • [00:53:18.93] [LAUGHTER]
  • [00:53:21.82] SPEAKER: Hey Rita, who's Gordon Hathaway?
  • [00:53:23.75] SPEAKER: He was an actor. That was the name of his character.
  • [00:53:28.09] SPEAKER: Oh, that's cool.
  • [00:53:29.05] SPEAKER: His real name is, like, Louis Nye.
  • [00:53:31.78] WILLIAM HAMPTON: That's pretty good.
  • [00:53:32.38] SPEAKER: You did your history.
  • [00:53:33.38] SPEAKER: I did. I looked it up on Wikipedia.
  • [00:53:34.46] WILLIAM HAMPTON: So out of all the stories, you know who Louis Nye was and you know who Gordon Hathaway was. You know who George Gibson was. And you do not know who Kirk Gibson was.
  • [00:53:44.60] SPEAKER: You said, Gibson-- Goodman.
  • [00:53:46.04] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Goodman. And yours, of all those, is the most recent.
  • [00:53:51.32] SPEAKER: Baseball player.
  • [00:53:53.70] WILLIAM HAMPTON: How'd you know that?
  • [00:53:54.32] SPEAKER: I know who Mel Gibson is.
  • [00:53:55.31] SPEAKER: You told us.
  • [00:53:56.22] SPEAKER: I asked my dad if he knew who that was. And he goes like-- he was, like, the name sounds familiar. I said it's a baseball player. And he goes, like, OK. But he still looks it up. He's like looking stuff up. And he goes, like, Sara, did you know this? And I was, like, no, Dad. I just asked if you knew.
  • [00:54:11.61] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well Gibson just interviewed for the job in LA. He had a famous walk-off home run in the World Series.
  • [00:54:20.72] SPEAKER: It magnifies the frame. Anybody want to look at it closer? I think-- or it protects it. I don't really know.
  • [00:54:29.65] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Have you had any adversity in your life?
  • [00:54:31.33] SPEAKER: Yes.
  • [00:54:32.47] SPEAKER: Ooh, yeah.
  • [00:54:33.44] SPEAKER: I've had some-- because I swim.
  • [00:54:35.59] SPEAKER: Not that bad, though.
  • [00:54:37.55] SPEAKER: I swim. I've told you this story before. And they were, like, you're black, you don't swim. And I'm just, like-- I was literally the only black swimmer.
  • [00:54:46.07] WILLIAM HAMPTON: So was that a revelation when they told you you were black? Say, oh, I didn't to know that.
  • [00:54:50.73] SPEAKER: Oh, that's what I would've done. Oh my gosh.
  • [00:54:54.64] SPEAKER: I thought was yellow.
  • [00:54:58.12] SPEAKER: I mean, I'm literally the only black swimmer on the swim team at Skyline. And that's why they mentioned it.
  • [00:55:04.17] SPEAKER: That's what people ask me, they ask me the dumbest questions. Like, they'll ask about my parents like-- oh, is religion a problem in your family? And I'm, like, OK. Think about what you just asked. My parents are married. They are happily married. You tell me, do you think religion is a huge issue in my family? Well, I guess not. Congratulations, you learned something new today, not to ask dumb question.
  • [00:55:27.06] SPEAKER: Because, like, my uncle-- my uncle is like-- I have a white uncle. And he's, like, a little bit mixed, but he's mostly white.
  • [00:55:34.39] WILLIAM HAMPTON: A little bit mixed.
  • [00:55:35.78] SPEAKER: It's my dad's brother. It's just like, you have somebody white in your family? And I was just, like, no, that's just not my uncle.
  • [00:55:42.20] SPEAKER: Tell him when you were a younger kid.
  • [00:55:44.99] SPEAKER: OK, when I was born, I was born white with blonde hair and green eyes. And my mom and dad were-- my mom was most surprised. Because she gave birth to a white baby.
  • [00:55:55.02] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Your dad ask for a DNA?
  • [00:55:56.72] SPEAKER: No.
  • [00:55:56.81] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I'm just kidding, man.
  • [00:55:59.22] SPEAKER: My dad knew why, because my dad's granddad is white. And my dad's mom is mixed. And then my dad's kind of mixed. So my dad knew what was going in.
  • [00:56:13.19] WILLIAM HAMPTON: So you're wearing brown contacts now?
  • [00:56:15.11] SPEAKER: No. My eyes--
  • [00:56:15.94] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I'm just kidding.
  • [00:56:16.52] SPEAKER: My eyes changed over time.
  • [00:56:17.24] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I'm just kidding.
  • [00:56:17.92] SPEAKER: They're like a hazel-y brown color.
  • [00:56:20.62] [INTERPOSING VOICES]
  • [00:56:22.02] SPEAKER: Like, you were born white?
  • [00:56:23.48] SPEAKER: With blonde hair and green eyes.
  • [00:56:24.71] SPEAKER: I know. That's what everyone said. I'm like, sh-- at first I'm like, show me a picture. He goes, if I find one I'll show you. And then I just started believing him. I'm like, he wouldn't lie to me about that.
  • [00:56:32.59] SPEAKER: I can't find one. I'm not lying at all. I was, like, Mom, are you serious? She was, like, yes, I'm dead serious. My dad was like-- she's serious.
  • [00:56:39.63] SPEAKER: You should have a picture of that.
  • [00:56:41.08] WILLIAM HAMPTON: You asked your mom was she lying?
  • [00:56:43.54] SPEAKER: I didn't say was she lying. I was, like, Mom, are you serious? I couldn't believe it.
  • [00:56:46.62] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Mom, are you lying?
  • [00:56:48.14] SPEAKER: Because she has all these pictures. And I'm, like, why is this baby so white? This is not me. And she's like, it is you.
  • [00:56:52.86] SPEAKER: Well, can you tell her to take a picture of them sometime and send them to me?
  • [00:56:55.81] SPEAKER: Yes.
  • [00:56:56.18] SPEAKER: OK, so talking about family and parents, I was wondering, how influential were your parents on the person you are today?
  • [00:57:05.13] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, my father was inspirational enough for my wife to put together a little book that sits on our coffee table with all the little phrases that I say still, that my dad used to say when I was a kid.
  • [00:57:23.10] SPEAKER: What were some of those phrases?
  • [00:57:26.05] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Probably none that would make any sense to you. But he would say that he made the domino. Do you know what a domino is?
  • [00:57:35.53] SPEAKER: Oh, we know.
  • [00:57:35.98] WILLIAM HAMPTON: It's a game, yeah. He made the dominoes and his kids put the dots on them. For example, he would say that-- he was a biblical scholar, but he had his own spin on things in the Bible. But for example he would say, take the word from the hellish man's mouth and let the man go. I thought that was in the Bible for all my childhood. But it's not. You know? So I could bore you with a whole bunch of 'em. But that's a couple.
  • [00:58:13.25] SPEAKER: That one's funny.
  • [00:58:15.44] SPEAKER: So who did you find in your family or outside of it, who's the most influential person on you?
  • [00:58:22.05] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Well, I'd like to-- I feel if I said my mom or my dad, that'd be being disrespectful to both of them. I do. So I'm gonna say my mom and my dad. And the reason why is because they influenced me in different ways. My dad, because he was my role model. Because I'm a guy, you know?
  • [00:58:40.64] And my mom, it's because she was always there. My mom was basically a stay at home mom. And my dad worked. My dad left early in the morning and came back early in the evening. But always had, as I told you before in the interview, we always had dinner together at the table.
  • [00:59:00.00] SPEAKER: I remember that.
  • [00:59:02.79] WILLIAM HAMPTON: I used to think I should go with my dad everywhere he went. But as a kid, you can't. So sometimes I would be inconsolable. And my mom would always tell me a nursery rhyme. The first one she ever told me was the story of "Little Red Riding Hood." And my mom could tell stories in such a manner to make you think that it really happened. So for a long time, as a child, I thought Little Red Riding Hood was a real person.
  • [00:59:39.87] SPEAKER: Oh, my god. Our childhood is so similar.
  • [00:59:42.40] WILLIAM HAMPTON: Really?
  • [00:59:42.82] SPEAKER: Yes. Because my dad would be gone. He'll eat dinner and then he would be gone late at night to go to work and stuff. And I'd be, like, I want to go with my dad. I was a big daddy's boy when I was little. But as time went by, it would just be and my mama at home, reading nursery rhymes for a little bit. And I just became big mama's boy over time. Man, I'd go home and cuddle under my mom.
  • [01:00:02.88] SPEAKER: People tell me I'm definitely my mother's daughter. Not only do we look similar, but we act similar. And so we end up butting heads a lot because we're so similar. I think since I was in seventh grade, I wrote a paper saying that my role model is my dad. Because I like the way my dad handled situations when they're tough for emotional.
  • [01:00:31.92] SPEAKER: You can continue.
  • [01:00:35.14] SPEAKER: Or when my-- like how he fixes problems, or he's very calm in certain situations. And so I see like-- and even though it's hard for some people to see it, my dad is a very caring person. And he loves his family, and he loves being with his family. Even though it's hard for some people to show it.