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How to Make Success Much Easier to Achieve
“I want you to read every book in the library”
Neither of my grandparents, my mom’s parents, could read or write all that well, barely. My grandfather worked in a factory and my grandmother stayed home.
My mom grew up in Milwaukee, WI, which is, to this day, the most segregated city in the United States. Her childhood years were in the heart of the civil rights era. She experienced real racism, not “micro-aggressions.” She grew up in a neighborhood that 99.5 percent of “woke” people wouldn’t even walk through.
Yet, she turned out just fine. From those circumstances, she graduated high school a year early, got a full scholarship to university, earned two master’s degrees, and helped give my brother and me a great life and childhood.
How?
Wasn’t she, a black woman growing up in one of the worst cities for black people in America, supposed to be destined for failure?
Is her story some sort of miracle? Or is the answer much simpler than that?
One fun part about your parents getting older is that they start to open up more and tell you random stories about their life. Last night, my mom and I got to talking about the state of the city, the state of society, the state of people in general. We…
