Ashley Preston - The Talk: A Journey Toward Anti-Racism Feb. 24, 2021 My grandfather was born and raised in Georgia. Papa was raised in the South in the ’40s and ’50s. When he moved West, he wanted to disassociate from the racism he grew up with, so we didn’t have “The Talk” about racial injustices. Basketball lifted him out of the South. He played in the Navy and at Long Beach City College, where he met my grandma. He also played at UCLA for Coach John Wooden and in the Los Angeles Police Department basketball league. My family is filled with college and professional athletes and police officers, so we were, in the eyes of America, “exceptional Blacks.”