| QUOTE |
| Something like that, because to leave a fairly well-off family in the suburbs and come to NYC on her own at 18 (and I mean ALL alone), and then put myself thru a difficult school and actually do pretty well, I think it's important to spell that out. I |
Wow, Woolie!
We seem to have similar background, in regards to the MC background and the move to NYC!! Where'd ya live? I lived in the E. Village, also Ft. Greene, Bklyn.
I checked the disadvantaged box AND am also an underrepresented minority in medicine (I belong to the group that makes up ~12% of the population, but only~6% in medicine. Can you guess which?). Anyway, I grew up in a pretty solid middle class environment (suburban white-flight initiators here) up to age 10.5 when my folks divorced, moved to the big bad (windy) city with my mother at age 11, went to a big bad inner city public school where kids always wanted to beat me up because 1) I had a Southern accent and 2) I got very good grades, and 3) was kinda nerdy because I didn't do what those kids did: smoke cigarettes, reefer, jump other kids and take their money, have sex--this was 6th grade, folks!!! Damn, I remember a 14-year-old girl in my 6th grade class that was pregnant. Fortunately, my teachers gave me level-appropriate work. I was invisible to my mother then. She suffered severe depression, but at that time it wasn't seen in the same light as today, so she got no treatment, but instead, found religion in a big way, not in a positive way, either. We stayed in a rat and roach infested apartment for the first few years. Although she had earned an MA while I was a tot, she took b***s*** jobs that offered no benefits, or she'd quit the job before elibility. If I fell ill, I went to the ER. No dentist, no pediatrician. I remember, at age 12, went to the ER with excruciating abdominal pain, and the medical staff immediately assumed that I was either pregnant or had an STD, just because of my race and maybe my address!!! Turned out I was lactose intolerant. That humiliation still affects me today. I got no support from my dad. I ended up dropping out of HS my first year, but got myself into a non-traditional (got an early start on that box) HS, got a diploma in 3 months, then moved to NYC at age 17 by myself....I'll stop here.
Oh, just thought I'd add that there's American Indian in the family from my mom's side--her grandad was full Choctaw, and there's Creek on the other side. But this is pretty common for many Blacks that come from the South, I think. An aunt did manage to get tribal papers and benefits, but I think that it stops with that generation, so I am not eligible.