Harry Ravenell, 83, is a retired business owner from Hempstead who has experienced racism all his life.

"By the time you get to be 5 years old, you understood what being Black was all about ... the difference between Black and white," says Ravenell. 

When asked if lines of segregation still exist for him today, Ravenell said he experienced more discrimination in the North than in the South.

"In the South, I knew where I stood and there wasn't that many white people around," he said. "In the North, when I went for jobs - and you knew that you were discriminated."

Ravenell said some things may change, but he didn't see it reaching a point of "perfect harmony" when people didn't think they are different.

"The one thing that will never change until white people start buying homes in Black neighborhoods. If you notice what goes on is that no white person would ever buy a house in a Black neighborhood, and as soon as Black people start buying houses in that neighborhood, white people start moving out. To say that things will be different, maybe yes or maybe no. There will be some different ... but I don't think it's gonna come to the point where everybody, Black and white people are living in harmony, like nothing - I don't think you are different. There will be some different, but you have to take it under consideration is that you can't teach hate, hatred is in a person automatically. And hatred come into young kids at a young age from their parents. Your parents don't have to teach that kid, it's just a matter of how you deal with other people, how you talk about other people ... that maybe you think your kids are not listening, but they're listening."

Ravenell told News 12 about an experience when someone referred to him as the N-word. That person was kicked out of Ravenell's business by a white salesman who told the person never to come back again.

"He was appalled that that guy would use that word," Ravenell said. "I can't stand my own people using that word. Why would you use a word that curses you? Why do we use the word? We should stay away from it."

"I would hope that every person see me as a human being and not something that you must be afraid of."