MISSION BEACH – As head chef at Miss B’s Coconut Club in Mission Beach, New York native Troy Williams has found his way in San Diego.
Williams grew up in a place with a distinctively different culture and lifestyle than where he ended up: The Queensbridge projects in Long Island City, New York — the same area as rapper Nas and former Los Angeles Lakers player Ron Artest.
Williams, 47, reflected on the differences in life in the Northeast compared to Southern California.
In New York, Williams pointed out that some police officers blatantly targeted Black and Brown people. “I’ve had experiences that bordered on assault, but (police) definitely were profiling us,” he said.
Williams grew up poor during the crack epidemic. It was just him, his brother, and their mom, who died when he was 11. He was eventually raised by his aunt, who renamed both him and his brother, giving them generic-type names to hide their racial background on paper and with job applications.
He added his aunt also made him read the dictionary, teaching him how to enunciate each syllable so they didn’t “sound Black” when he recited them, so he would be considered more “educated.”
His aunt lived through the Civil Rights era. “She had an even more trying time growing up,” Williams said.
Describing his aunt as being like a “big sister,” Williams was strongly influenced by her, noting her lessons “carried me into adulthood.”
San Diego turned out to be the land of opportunity for Williams, who started as a line cook, excelled at it, and got promoted by the original chef at Miss B’s in Mission Beach, whom he said “had plans for me that I didn’t even know.”
Those plans ultimately culminated in his promotion as head chef.
Williams spoke of what Black History Month means to him.
“It educates me about my lineage, where I come from,” he said. “I get to know more about myself and what I came from. It allows me to reflect. I didn’t just show up in Queens in 1979. There are a lot of ingredients that went into me being who I am.”
He added that the observance also inspires him and makes him grateful.
“It’s good for non-Black people too to just acknowledge that we all come from different backgrounds and that it’s good to celebrate and look at Black history in this way. It’s better to try and understand each other than to go against each other.”
To illustrate his point, Williams said that he once worked with someone from a white supremacist background who wouldn’t even speak to him until his perspective got “turned around.”
“He just looked at me one day and said, ‘You’re just cool,’” said Williams, who added that he was astonished.
“After that, we became friends,” he said.
“Togetherness is how we get better,” Williams said of that experience in overcoming racial prejudice. “Kindness does win.”
