You are my Mr. Rock.

The only way to plausibly imagine telling the story of my dad is by telling you a story about my dad. Just one. In this single story, you’ll know everything there is to know about this man. I can start by saying he’s a real stand up guy with a firm handshake and a loving heart. But that collateral is better suited for when I design Mahogany Hallmark card greetings.

My dad is such a fascinating man, that I had to bring him to work for Show & Tell a few years ago. Before your imagination takes you to a land in which I’m a school teacher and this activity is part and parcel to my work terms, just stop. I work at one of the leading tech companies in the world. Yes, so I had to bring my dad to Show & Tell at Google. This way, more people could witness the phenom and the less I’d have to work at telling his story.

Every Friday in 2020, my old team would host “Family Fridays” where a team member conducts a live interview of their chosen family member. At the time, I was living in my hometown of Baton Rouge ducking coronavirus with my then boyfriend, now fiance. As you can recall in 2020, this entire country was experiencing no shortage of bloodshed, racially charged moments. Think back to your mental state in the wake of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery.

I remember calling my father several times that year in hopes he could help me make sense of this world. He was born and raised in the 1960s in the south, in Louisiana specifically. He worked in a blue collar field for 30 years and still inhabits one of the more impoverished neighborhoods of my city. He is who I turn to when I need to understand why our existence is a green light for manhunt and murder in the streets.

So, for this Family Friday, I brought my dad into my team at Google to give the same game to me to my white co-workers. I had grown a bit weary throughout those months of explaining to white people what it’s like to not be white.

So, I brought in reinforcements. Here’s a transcription of 4 minutes of the live, “Mr. Rock on Rising Above Racism” interview:

Ariel (Interviewer): So my first set of questions is on being Black. Like I said, you grew up in the sixties, what about today’s climate reminds you of back then.

Mr. Rock (Interviewee): Well, the togetherness and everybody is forming. That’s what’s reminding me of the big crowds I was seeing when I was a kid that didn’t understand, ‘why is everyone coming together.’ I couldn’t figure out why. But now since, I’m an adult and part of that then and now, I understand clearly what everybody is trying to do for the better.

Ariel: Have you experienced racism? If so, how has it been? Just for context, he’s a lifetime career ironworker. He’s very proud, he’s wearing his Iron Workers Local Union hat… 623 and everybody gets decked out in his ironworker paraphernalia. I have cups with ironworker stickers, Vic (Arie’s fiance) has a money clip with his ironworker gear on it. Speaking about where have you experienced racism? On the job, or while you're traveling through Louisiana or even while you’re hunting or fishing?

Mr. Rock: First of all, experiencing racism on the job it was very, very stressful and challenging to an individual with a family, as well as everybody else. Everybody was out there because of their family needs trying to send their kids to school and provide for their bills. And when you’re being approached by some racist people that was on the job. It was several times that I was the only black ironworker on the job and I took the full brunt of ridicule and all kinds of criticisms and stuff. Thanks to my father for giving me the courage to stay on out there, I finally prevailed. But you gotta keep proving yourself over and over again that you knew your work and knew how to do your work without any shortcuts. Eventually, the stuff quit. Once they recognized that you were out here and you had a skill that’s just as good as their skill, the stuff just immediately quit.

Ariel: Just a little bit more background, because I love bragging on him! He is a combination welder. That is the most advanced kind of welder you can be. I’ve seen him built like twenty foot deer stands that go in the woods where he’s hunting at. He has an idea of like, “I wanna build a meat smoker that has three layers and he’ll just build it from scratch. Whenever we are passing by certain infrastructures in Baton Rouge or New Orleans, I’ll say ‘My daddy helped build that Target!’ That building there…he’ll help set the foundation. So, combination welder, friends.

Ariel: So, last question on being black and growing up in the sixties, how did these experiences of racism change you?

Mr. Rock: It changed me to understand…it’s like we live in one big house with different rooms but we are all in the same house. We need to accept people for who they are and realize that in order for this whole house to work we have to all get along.

-end-

The video recording unfortunately cut off at the 4:41 mark. The rest of the conversation covered how he navigates what it means to be Black in America and how he discusses the nuances to us as his kids. We also covered what fatherhood means to him. He went on to share with my team that his proudest moment as a parent was literally becoming a parent.

Finally, we wrapped the conversation with a discussion of how magic runs in our family. He of course warned my entire Corporate team that voodoo is real and they should be aware of the signs.

This is my dad, ladies and gentlemen. Mr. Rock.

To see this interview live and in the flesh, head over to my Instagram page @celestial_ariel to put a face to the powerful name.