I met Arthur Duncan when I was a kid :-)

My girl cousin took tap lessons at Arthur Duncan Dance Studios; I say 'girl' cousin because my tough-as-nails longshoreman dad wouldn't let me take the class even though I wanted to, but it was 'sissy' and 'only for girls.'

<thread> https://twitter.com/terrikayoliver/status/1278848801772638212

My mom and aunt would go to her recitals and I'd came along, at least to watch. Dad didn't like that either, but mom won that argument.

Several times Mr. Duncan was there, and at a big dance-off they held one year, which he hosted.

I remember how nice he was to us kids.

Given that my dad was racist, it may be a part of him not allowing me in the class. He was actually the 1st black man I met in life, and given dad's conditioning of me, I was surprised that he was so nice. Mom told me later, "Of course he is, he's a man like you will be someday."

Mom was always trying to undo dad's programming of me, but meeting Arthur Duncan showed me first-hand that black people could be every bit as nice as white people, and TBH I liked him more than I liked my own dad. I was about 7-8 years old. Dad passed when I was 16.

I just did a search and discovered that Mr. Duncan has a protected Twitter account, he's about 86 years-old today. I hope @duncanmuc sees this thread and accepts my thanks for showing me that black people can be awesome after all, despite what dad said.