People look at me and think I am an expert in the automobile industry, and I'm not.

I am not a technical drummer at all. I'm more from the Keith Moon/Lars Ulrich school of, 'Hey, look at me!' I just get up there and bash.

I'm black. I'm gay. I'm culturally Christian. I am a walking target on so many levels, and it is horrifying and a cross that very, very many of us who look like me have to bear.

Latinos are very passionate, and they perform a lot, and look at me, I'm talking with my hands, and this is just my normal self, so it kind of allows me to be who I am and not dumb it down.

My hair color is super important to my look because I feel like it helps kind of define who I am. It's like a characteristic of mine that makes me feel comfortable and different from the rest.

Some people see me as someone who makes other people look bad... I often get a feeling most people don't know who I am, or have a clue, and I live with that. I don't try to prove anything by talking.

When I moved in, I said, 'I don't care how this makes me look or sound: I am converting one of these bedrooms into a shoe closet.' It's become more of a dressing room, but one wall is shoes in their perfect cubbies.

But the most precious research to me came from the paperwork filed on behalf of my grandparents and great-grandfather. The ship's manifest showed that they could read and write. I am still emotional when I look at those boxes checked yes.

It's an incredible feeling when you look across the dressing room and see Andres, Leo, Luis and Sergio Busquets, and everyone else. They are players I used to watch on TV or play with on PlayStation, and now I am sharing the same dressing room. It's incredible for me.

I don't portray a terrorist. The American fans label me a terrorist. It doesn't matter what I claim to be: in their eyes, I am whatever they say I am despite the fact that I'm not committing any 'acts of terror.' I ask you, how am I portraying a terrorist? Because I look like a Muslim?

There are moments when I am really not happy with how I look, or I think it would be an easy way out to try and do the conventionally attractive thing. But part of it is that I don't have the energy to put on, like, makeup. If people want to do that, that's fine. But I've learned that it's not for me.

It had never occurred to me that my colour - or lack of it - was an issue for some people, but then I moved to Sydney, and apparently it was. People look at me and don't see what they think is a typical Aboriginal. Thankfully, my mother raised me well in knowing where I come from and who I am, and I'm proud of that.

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