ナショナルジオグラフィックのインスタグラム(natgeo) - 3月8日 08時44分

Photo by @martinschoeller
Martin: “Where do you live?”
Rodney: “I’ve been living in my truck for four years. I decided to keep money in my pocket instead of paying rent downtown. I found out about this place [the food line @GWHFC]. So I threw away some pride. I have money, I come here and eat food."
M: [Noticing some scars] “You’ve been shot?”
R: “Oh yeah, yeah. I had nine surgeries. They shot me and run me over. I got shot here and this one, the third shot I ducked. I watched the car run over my leg. I was already shot in my Achilles Tendon. I couldn’t feel it. I don’t know if it was mistaken identity. I don’t hang out with them. Maybe I was just a new face downtown. Everybody knows everybody’s face, you gotta fit in. I had to tell so many dudes, ‘Hey man, when you see me, don’t hit me up with a proposition. I’m not sellin’ and I’m not buyin’. I don’t do drugs. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke cigarettes. I’m just down here to eat.' They gang-banging out here, that’s what they doin’."
M: “You never got into it?”
R: “No, no. I had family that I watched get into it. Why do I want to go out and prove to a bunch of suckers what I’m gonna do for them? I’m doin’ stuff for me and my kids. I don’t have nothin’ to prove to other Black men or any other race. And that’s the problem with Blacks, they think they have something to prove. I choose to be homeless, I sleep in my truck goin’ on four years. I got three IRA accounts. One for myself. I got two kids. I got a bank account. I got money in it. I threw my pride away long time ago. Pride is something that nobody needs. Pride is only needed at a certain time."
M: "Do you still talk to the mother of your kids?"
R: “No she took them kids and left me. I found out the oldest kid wasn’t mine. I don’t know, I guess she was using me.”
M: “Where is she now?”
R: “Living with her mother and with the kids.”
M: “Do you see your kids sometimes?”
R: “I go to their school and see ’em every Friday and I take ’em to the movies every Wednesday. I been there since day one. That’s the only reason I’m still in Los Angeles, ‘cause I’m waiting 'till they get old enough.” For more portraits and stories, follow me @martinschoeller

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