Born bright : a young girl's journey from nothing to something in America

Born bright A young girl's journey from nothing to something in America

C. Nicole Mason, 1976-

Book - 2016

"'Standing on the stage, I felt exposed and like an intruder. In these professional settings, my personal experiences with hunger, poverty, and episodic homelessness, often go undetected. I had worked hard to learn the rules and disguise my beginning in life ... ' So begins C. Nicole Mason's powerful memoir, a story of reconciliation, constrained choices and life on the other side of the tracks. Born in the 1970s in Los Angeles, California, Mason was raised by a beautiful, but volatile16-year-old single mother. Early on, she learned to navigate between an unpredictable home life and school where she excelled. By high school, Mason was seamlessly straddling two worlds. The first, a cocoon of familiarity where street smart...s, toughness and the ability to survive won the day. The other, foreign and unfamiliar with its own set of rules, not designed for her success. In her Advanced Placement classes and outside of her neighborhood, she felt unwelcomed and judged because of the way she talked, dressed and wore her hair. After moving to Las Vegas to live with her paternal grandmother, she worked nights at a food court in one of the Mega Casinos while finishing school. Having figured out the college application process by eavesdropping on the few white kids in her predominantly Black and Latino school along with the help of a long ago high school counselor, Mason eventually boarded a plane for Howard University, alone and with $200 in her pocket. While showing us her own path out of poverty, Mason examines the conditions that make it nearly impossible to escape and exposes the presumption harbored by many--that the poor don't help themselves enough"--

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BIOGRAPHY/Mason, C. Nicole
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Subjects
Mason, C. Nicole, > 1976-
Mason, C. Nicole, > 1976- > Childhood and youth.
African American women > Biography.
African Americans > Biography.
African American women educators > Biography.
Gifted women > Biography.
Success > Case studies.
Poor children > Biography.
Homeless persons > Biography.
Published
New York : St. Martin's Press 2016.
Language
English
Main Author
C. Nicole Mason, 1976- (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
242 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-242).
ISBN
9781250069924
  • What Do You Want to Be?
  • Day of Reckoning
  • A Crack in the Foundation
  • Origins
  • The End of Things
  • Starved
  • Putting Out the Fire
  • Free Today
  • A Home of Our Own
  • Only One Rule
  • 54 Out of 54
  • Death Is Here
  • Wedding Day
  • Home Street
  • Seeing with Only These Eyes
  • Away
  • Not Poor, Poor
  • Sonnies Got a Baby
  • Cell Block High
  • A Place Called Home
  • A Light
  • Food for All
  • New Mission
  • Gone
  • In the Desert
  • Brighter
  • Little Brother
  • Accepted
  • Graduation
  • I'll Fly Away
  • What Should Be Done?
  • Epilogue
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
Review by Booklist Review

Born to teenage parents in Los Angeles, Mason spent the 1970s and 1980s in poor, segregated neighborhoods. Her mother eventually married a drug dealer, which offered more stability than the family had ever experienced before; and while they lived better than most of their peers, Mason always knew she'd need to escape both from her stepfather's abuse and from worrying about her younger brother. Moving from school to school was a constant, but her love of learning was not dampened by the constant flux or the upheavals in her home life I needed an anchor, something to keep me from drifting away. And school was it for me. Despite mostly disinterested teachers and unmotivated classmates, Mason found a way to succeed by joining every club and activity that would take her, enrolling in honors classes without permission, and pestering a former guidance counselor to help her secure a spot at Howard University. Readers will find Mason's absorbing memoir which would make an excellent book-club selection to be an interesting take on the issue of entrenched poverty in the U.S.--Vnuk, Rebecca Copyright 2016 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Mason, executive director of the Center for Research and Policy in the Public Interest, a Manhattan-based women's foundation, approaches the topic of poverty in America from an insider's perspective. In this raw and intimate memoir, Mason takes readers from her childhood in California to her acceptance at Howard University, chronicling her struggle to break through the boundaries and limitations of growing up poor. Born in 1976 to an unmarried teenage mother, Mason loved learning, and school became her anchor in a volatile, violent, and ever-changing world. The family often moved from place to place, her young mother's marriage to a drug dealer bringing even more danger and disruption into their lives. As the author entered her teens and felt the dire need to escape her mother's abusive partner, she was welcomed by her grandmother in Las Vegas. Her circuitous course reveals the ongoing challenges involved in confronting the barriers of poverty and the pervasive risks of drugs, teen pregnancy, abuse, gangs, and racism. Along the way, Mason discusses the malfunctions of the criminal, legal, social services, and education systems, offering the alternative solution of a new, tiered system of family support. Mason vividly illustrates the grit, determination, and "herculean effort" necessary to reframe a young life steeped in unyielding poverty. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Mason (Me First: A Deliciously Selfish Take on Life) provides a sobering account of the struggle of growing up in poverty in 1970s Southern California. Born to a teenage mother and mostly absent father, Mason here details the ongoing trials her family endured in finding basic necessities such as housing and food. Raised in neighborhoods with mostly African American families like her own, the author shares the sense of isolation she felt from the more affluent parts of society. Included in Mason's candid anecdotes are the challenges she faced in completing the college application process, and how this nearly blocked her entry into postsecondary education. From inequalities in public school funding to a dysfunctional criminal justice system, she offers her take on cultural barriers to economic parity. Mason, now a respected voice on socioeconomics, also delivers her views on how to improve life for marginalized Americans. Works such as Sasha Abramsky's The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives offer studies of economic disparity but without the compelling personal perspective. VERDICT This firsthand account of a passage out of poverty will inspire readers interested in the strength of the human spirit in overcoming formidable obstacles.-Mary Jennings, Camano Island Lib., WA © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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