To walk the streets of the city and be recognized by every tenth person or so is cool, I guess, in the greater scheme of things. It moves me up in lines, gets me a wink sometimes when the bill comes or I have a nice conversation I probably would not have had with a complete stranger.

But even with that, I still experience that look of fear and disdain that I would normally see from folks if I weren’t on TV, moments before they are hit with the realization of who I am.

Most times I just have to laugh inside and shake my head. But it is a constant reminder of who I am in New York and America. I’m still followed in stores by security, asked where the bathrooms are, and have change thrown at me as if I had some kind of disease.

It seems that no matter where we end up, some still see us the way they want to see us. We were told all these years: "follow this path," "Play by our rules" and the American dream is yours. Dress this way, talk this way, act this way blah, blah, blah. I know some of us may feel like it may have been all for nothing.

We may not be in the projects anymore but we’re still trapped.

Whether it’s hitting a glass ceiling at work or getting passed over by the waiter in a restaurant, it may feel like things haven’t changed much.

There is still a lot of work to be done in leveling the playing fields of society but that work has moved from jobs, money and clothes, to knowledge and perception. But the real work I think involves not the perception of people outside our community but inside. We see each other sometimes in an even poorer light. The other day I was walking down the street, and a young man in his late teens early twenties saw me as I was going to work. He told the woman next to him "Yo that’s the dude from Channel 1, I don’t know which one he is doh." He continued: "He looks like a tight ass M**** F***er." I stopped, turned around to his surprise and told him he shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

When I was younger I used to play my music loud in my car, but then I stopped because I became indoctrinated into the notion that doing so was "ghetto" and would ruin people’s impression of me. Lately though, in the last year or two, I’ve started playing it loud again.

It is my own little rebellion against the machine.

I still wear the nice suits to work, and talk a certain way when I’m working, but when I’m on my own time I do my own thing. Some of you might not even recognize me out there when I’m casual and comfortable.

I am the same person though.

You shouldn’t have to give up who you are to be what you want. But the reality is most of us will.

The trick is not to sacrifice all of it. Slaves who taught themselves to read and write under cover of dark, still had to pretend to be ignorant and stupid to survive. They did not sacrifice the learning . . . only the image of it.

As hard as it is for us sometimes to do so, we should not judge each other based on what we see. That is part of what keeps us divided.

The corporate/work world tells us to shun the hip-hop lifestyle. Leave the ghetto in the ghetto. While the so-called urban lifestyle says to "keep it real" and bring down all those who you think aren’t.

Who do you think is ultimately on the end of both sets of strings?

It’s not someone who looks like you or me, for the most part, but people who will no doubt benefit from fueling the internal struggle in our own house. A lot of us we pay all of this no attention, while others wrestle with the intra-culture clash, and still others choose sides and lash out.

If you’re a suit and you’re in a Mickey D’s, don’t see the people there as shiftless society rejects. Just smile at the brother or sister working their tails off and acknowledge their struggle.

If you’re a thug who hates getting dissed when you walk into an office building, think about how you would feel if you got the same reaction in an Armani. Then when you pass someone wearing one, don’t accuse them of trying to be something they are not.

We’re on the same road at different stages of the trip and like any team sport we all have to win, to win. But we have different jobs, tasks, skills, styles and abilities — that should be our strength not our weakness.

This is what we should recognize when we see each other at any time and any place. Suits or sneakers, hems or hoods, Jag or feet.