My parents learned that the officer did not report the attack and that the officers who eventually took me to the hospital reported that I had sustained 'unknown injuries.' I was also listed as a suspect and not a victim. The officer didn't stop to provide aid, and didn't arrest me or question me.

In 1982, I was training for the upcoming football season when I was viciously attacked by a Philadelphia Police K-9 Officer and his dog during a parade. I went on to play college football and earned a bachelor's degree in English. I chose to attend Delaware State University, one of the nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities. When I was old enough to make a decision about my schooling, I returned to my neighborhood high school, and excelled at both athletics and academics, and received several athletic scholarship opportunities to attend college. I vividly remember as our yellow school buses pulled up to the school, our welcoming committee consisting of white parents protesting with signs and older teens yelling and throwing things despite a police presence. In second grade, I was bused from an upper middle class neighborhood to a solidly middle-class, predominantly white neighborhood. They hoped that I would live to see productive adulthood unlike many of my contemporaries. I was always told by my parents that no matter how absurd the reason for the stop by police, insults or degradation, to submit and comply so that I could make it home alive. Police abuse was an ordinary element of living. Horace is founder of The Horace Foundation Endowment for Criminal Justice Studies at Delaware State University.Īs a person of color, growing up in Philadelphia, I was aware at a very early age of over-policing, racism and discrimination. Matthew Horace, chief security officer at Mayo Clinic, talks about his background and how he came to be at Mayo Clinic. Voices of Mayo is a series that highlights Mayo staff and their stories, exploring their diverse backgrounds, the challenges they face, the opportunities they have been given, and their experiences at Mayo Clinic.Īs Mayo Clinic strengthens its commitment to eliminating racial bias within its walls and in the communities it serves, staff at Mayo Clinic are sharing their experiences of growing up under the shadow of bias, and how they overcame it. Matthew Horace, Mayo Clinic's chief security officer, shares his experience of growing up under the shadow of bias as a Black man in America, his career as a law enforcement officer, and his thoughts on what each person can do to improve race relations.

The black and the blue matthew horace