Actual Headline: “Brotherhood Is Key To Survival For Island’s Black Firefighter”

Rarer than the female cab driver is the African-American firefighter. Rarer still, the African-American firefighter on Staten Island:

Staten Island’s lone black firefighter relishes the ritual that occurs in the kitchen of the firehouse whenever a new recruit, or probie, arrives.

It’s that kind of good-natured “hazing” and other in-house rites that has everything to do with camaraderie and nothing to do with racism, said Bruce Stanley, 52, of Rosebank, the only African-American firefighter permanently assigned to Staten Island.

“Everyone gets a turn about getting their chops broken,” said Stanley, a 22-year FDNY veteran among a paltry 2.9 percent of the department’s roster that includes African-Americans.

“You basically can’t be thin-skinned. If guys didn’t kid around with you, that meant they didn’t care for you.

“And you can’t be isolated in this job. Everything we do is as a group, as a unit. If one looks at someone with disdain because of their race, that very person could be the one to save their life,” said Stanley, who for the past eight years has worked out of Ladder Co. 80, Battalion 20 and Division 8.