I come from an interracial family. We have similar goals in life, particularly about education. After all, opportunity is what is supposed to make America quite appealing. Due to my background, certain opportunities, namely higher education, have been available.

My grandfather encouraged my father to pursue higher education, probably because he wasn’t able to. My grandfather lived with a single mother. His father saw him every week for a trip to visit his grandparents, but once my grandfather was old enough, he went by himself. His father eventually moved out of New York altogether.  His grandparents from his dad’s said were Polish, and the ones from his mom’s side were English and Austrian. When my grandfather graduated high school, he and his best friends all realized that college was much too expensive. The Second World War was going on at the time, so the military became the best option. My grandmother had decided to work straight after college, but had to quit to take care of her children. Thus, by the time my dad came around, I’m sure my grandparents wanted him and his older brother to not have that confusion of “What to do?” Therefore, my father and his brother went on to college. My father got his Bachelor’s degree. He majored in Business and Retail Management. He worked in Alexander’s Department Store as a manager, but when it went out of business he went for Kids ‘R’ Us, then switched to Century 21, which he still works for. All of his jobs after Alexander’s has been as a manager, something his father was in the 1950s. I can only infer that this is no coincidence.

My mother is from Barbados (specifically Christ Church), and education there is highly valued. Everyone was not only supposed to go to college, but they were to do well in school.  Her family especially highly encouraged that all the children would pursue higher education, perhaps because her parents didn’t. My mother and her sisters all went to college, as well as their cousins. My mother majored in Hospitality, and had went to work in a hotel. Her mother had decided to pursue work in New York after my mom had started working, hence why she and her sisters came here as well. Her father had stayed behind, since he and my grandmother were split. Once my mom came to America, she went to get an American college degree. She later worked as a salesperson then manager in Alexander’s, too, and eventually worked in Edmund Gould before retiring from that before I was born. I think a shared trait is our desire to work helping the next generation. However, whether this is a case of nature or if it is a case of nurture is beyond me, though I have a strong inclination that it is nature.

I live in a stable household where my going to college was never an issue or an expectation, it was a fact. I think this is due to my mother’s values from Barbados: college is not optional; it is just done. Part of this has nothing to do with background at all: I wanted to be a teacher since I was four, so naturally, college was a requirement. Nothing impeded my going to college. That said, finances dictated to an extent where I was going. But I should backtrack:

Due to my background, school was pretty significant to me.  A phrase my mother always said was “Do your best.” I tried to not slack off, but work as hard as I could, which I apply to all things in I do in life. In terms of education, it led me to maintaining over a 90 average, at all times. As I grew older, I realized that those good grades were also needed for a scholarship. Until I was ten, only my father worked. After that, my mother became substitute school aide, before finally becoming a permanent school aide in P.S. 305. This was to help bring in more income, a plan that was successful to an extent. But college these days are getting more and more expensive, a growing problem in this country. When my acceptance letters came in, I based many of my choices off of finances. The private universities that I had gotten in to—Hofstra, New York University—and even Stony Brook were all much too expensive, even with the scholarships they gave me. (Hofstra was over $50,000 a year!) That’s why half of the reason I chose to come to Brooklyn College was the full scholarship that would take the financial burden away. Therefore, although I’m from an average middle-class household, I am able to move up to social ladder to do higher things.

That said, there are the obvious roadblocks that have nothing to do with finance. Half of my family has been in Brooklyn since the early twentieth century, including myself, giving me some privilege as a born-citizen.  You could argue that it is possible that I might run into Anti-Semitism due to the fact that I’m half-Jewish on my dad’s side (I’m Episcopalian on my mother’s side, and I practice both religions), but people assume that I’m not Jewish, it never has happened. Even when they do know, they never have a negative opinion on it. The other half of my family are Caribbean Black. In truth, in my pursuit of higher education to be an educator, I recently faced a dilemma: when getting fingerprinted for the New York Board of Education, one must pick one race. My usual savior, the “Other” box, did not exist. I knew the implications of my choice: To choose “White” would mean getting privileges in the system. To choose “Black” would mean the opposite. (I personally identify as both.)

I chose “Black,” and am prepared to see how that affects my time in college as a Secondary Education/History major who goes out to do student teaching and observations. I am also prepared to see how my life after college will be affected by this choice. My family and I know that some sort of negative outcome may come, yet I shall take this.

Having being groomed for higher education, in a stable household, and as a recipient of a full-scholarship, I understand that my family background has given me privileges. Unlike my grandfather, I had the means. I never had to wonder, “What to do?” Of course, my background as a minority will no doubt cause disadvantages: prejudices, harder time securing jobs, harmful stereotypes, etc. But, it won’t get me down.