About

Personal Statement

Because of the Black Lives Matter movement, I’ve begun to examine my life and my family’s prosperity. I know there must be sources of privilege I’m not yet aware of, but I can say for certain that the key to my family’s success has been education. My parents served in World War II. They met when my dad was a wounded soldier and my mother his nurse — a story I hope to write someday! After the war both my parents benefitted from the GI Bill, attending college, graduate school and purchasing their first home with a low-rate mortgage courtesy of the Federal government. Although the language of the GI Bill was race neutral, implementation of the bill happened at the local level which meant that in reality the bill did not benefit veterans of color in the same way it benefitted white veterans, especially in the South. As far as housing went, the most desirable neighborhoods were closed to non-whites. In education Blacks could often gain admittance only to chronically underfunded Black colleges and universities whose limited facilities meant classes were quickly filled. The result is that many people of color were left out, unable to join in the growth and prosperity of the middle class that for many white families began in the 1940s and 50s. Our country would be a better place if the benefits of the GI Bill had been distributed equally as they were meant to be and if minority Americans had received their share of this government largesse. And yet, it wasn’t largesse. It was a debt — owed for service, bravery, and sacrifice. A debt that for people of color remains unpaid to this day. — CJG