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Born Bright: A Young Girl's Journey from Nothing to Something in America
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 Born Bright, 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 smarts, 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.
So begins Born Bright, 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 smarts, 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.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published August 16, 2016
65 people are currently reading
2785 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews
September 15, 2016
So, it turns out I was playing unwitting host to some pretty crappy biases, and my recent reading has exposed some of them. Earlier this week I wrote about my unconscious bias against fat people, which I reckoned with when I read Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West. Today, I'm discussing another audio book I listened to recently, which revealed another bias lurking under the surface of my consciousness.
Nicole Mason grew up all over southern California, the daughter of a teenage single mother. Her childhood was fraught with challenges, but she managed to get out of her rough neighborhood, was accepted into college with a full merit scholarship, and wrote her memoir as a PhD holder and scholar. One of the reasons she wrote Born Bright was to challenge commonly held beliefs about low-income individuals. We’re told the American dream means that anyone can be anything, but the path to success is not the same for everyone despite those sunny proclamations.
At the end of the book, as Mason discussed the need for better social programs and a stronger safety net to keep people from falling into poverty in the first place, I realized I have long bought into the “bootstrap” mentality that so many Americans espouse. The idea that if you work hard, you can make a comfortable living and support a family. The problem with that view, which Mason helped me to see, is that for low-income people there are barriers that middle- and upper-class individuals don't have to concern themselves with. Paying for college, for example, looks a whole lot different if you've been raised in a minimum wage, paycheck-to-paycheck household. Someone like me, with a college fund provided by parents, has a much easier time focusing on grades than someone like Mason, whose mother was on public assistance and had no savings to help her daughter pay for school.
The privileges of my upper-middle-class childhood seem obvious to me now, but it's easy to have blind spots when it comes to our own experiences. Mason's book would be a great one to read if you, like me, have struggled to empathize with or understand the lives of low-income people.
It's been an uncomfortable few weeks of reading for me, but I'm glad I've had a chance to own up to and wrestle with my feelings on these issues. I love reading to escape, but I also love reading to challenge myself and become a better person. Basically, books like these are helping me to not be such a douchecanoe.
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
Nicole Mason grew up all over southern California, the daughter of a teenage single mother. Her childhood was fraught with challenges, but she managed to get out of her rough neighborhood, was accepted into college with a full merit scholarship, and wrote her memoir as a PhD holder and scholar. One of the reasons she wrote Born Bright was to challenge commonly held beliefs about low-income individuals. We’re told the American dream means that anyone can be anything, but the path to success is not the same for everyone despite those sunny proclamations.
At the end of the book, as Mason discussed the need for better social programs and a stronger safety net to keep people from falling into poverty in the first place, I realized I have long bought into the “bootstrap” mentality that so many Americans espouse. The idea that if you work hard, you can make a comfortable living and support a family. The problem with that view, which Mason helped me to see, is that for low-income people there are barriers that middle- and upper-class individuals don't have to concern themselves with. Paying for college, for example, looks a whole lot different if you've been raised in a minimum wage, paycheck-to-paycheck household. Someone like me, with a college fund provided by parents, has a much easier time focusing on grades than someone like Mason, whose mother was on public assistance and had no savings to help her daughter pay for school.
The privileges of my upper-middle-class childhood seem obvious to me now, but it's easy to have blind spots when it comes to our own experiences. Mason's book would be a great one to read if you, like me, have struggled to empathize with or understand the lives of low-income people.
It's been an uncomfortable few weeks of reading for me, but I'm glad I've had a chance to own up to and wrestle with my feelings on these issues. I love reading to escape, but I also love reading to challenge myself and become a better person. Basically, books like these are helping me to not be such a douchecanoe.
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
April 27, 2016
I won a copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway.
This is a book that everyone should read! It is an uplifting story of a poor black girl born into the most desolate of situations who managed to work her way through the complex system to achieve her own personal success. However, it tells so much more. It shatters the belief that the poor are not giving it their best to escape poverty. It makes one painfully aware of the nearly impossible difficulties that the child born into poverty faces ... from schools, from the justice system, from interactions with the bureaucratic institutions, from disrupted home lives and on and on. In that perspective, it makes Ms. Mason's journey so much more miraculous. However, it saddens the reader to realize how many capable lives are lost in the chaos. I hope to remember the message of this book.
This is a book that everyone should read! It is an uplifting story of a poor black girl born into the most desolate of situations who managed to work her way through the complex system to achieve her own personal success. However, it tells so much more. It shatters the belief that the poor are not giving it their best to escape poverty. It makes one painfully aware of the nearly impossible difficulties that the child born into poverty faces ... from schools, from the justice system, from interactions with the bureaucratic institutions, from disrupted home lives and on and on. In that perspective, it makes Ms. Mason's journey so much more miraculous. However, it saddens the reader to realize how many capable lives are lost in the chaos. I hope to remember the message of this book.
June 16, 2016
C. Nicole Mason had a purpose in mind when she wrote Born Bright. By way of her own memoir from childhood through college, she wanted to reveal what true poverty in the United States is. It is not as simple as people not having enough money, but rather much more complex. Living in various cities in the Los Angeles and San Bernardino area, she was unaware that her family was extremely poor. Everyone she knew was in the same situation. She did not know that there a world out there where people did not have to contend with huge financial, safety and starvation or semi starvation. Being smart and determined, she pushed herself out with a lot of grit and pain along the way.
There are many misconceptions about the poor. It is not that the poor do not try enough to change their situation. When I read about the obstacles that she faced to get a good education, I am amazed that she was able to do. The education for the poor that she describes so well is very different from what the middle class have. The materials are scant, the books are worn and well out of date. She and other children are not expected to go to college so they are not even exposed to a curriculum that would equip them. I know what she wrote because of my own personal experiences.
If you are poor and come home from school, you cannot count on there being food to feed you, clothes to clothe you. You cannot depend on being safe from gunshots in your own home, your brother or sister might be tricked into starting drugs. You will be moving a lot, you will not have a stable place to call your home. You are not likely to get proper healthcare. Your family will be effected by all of the above. Most likely with all these problems there will be constant emotional turmoil. You are never safe, you probably will not feel loved, you may feel neglected or threatened instead. To get out of this situation you have to be extremely smart and determined . Even then, when you get out, you will feel like an outsider.
After the author tells what happened in her own life, in the last chapter, she discusses what we can do to fight the terrors of poverty. I have been about some of the so called solutions that did not work. She offers intelligent concrete things that our government can do. I wish that this book was required reading for all legislatures.
I highly recommend this book if you want to know the true impact of poverty. The first step is to learn not to imagine. Real experiences can make indelible impressions in your life but if you do not have those experiences, you must educate yourself.
I received this Advance Reading Copy of Born Bright from the publisher by a win from FirstReads. My thoughts and feelings in this review are totally my own.
There are many misconceptions about the poor. It is not that the poor do not try enough to change their situation. When I read about the obstacles that she faced to get a good education, I am amazed that she was able to do. The education for the poor that she describes so well is very different from what the middle class have. The materials are scant, the books are worn and well out of date. She and other children are not expected to go to college so they are not even exposed to a curriculum that would equip them. I know what she wrote because of my own personal experiences.
If you are poor and come home from school, you cannot count on there being food to feed you, clothes to clothe you. You cannot depend on being safe from gunshots in your own home, your brother or sister might be tricked into starting drugs. You will be moving a lot, you will not have a stable place to call your home. You are not likely to get proper healthcare. Your family will be effected by all of the above. Most likely with all these problems there will be constant emotional turmoil. You are never safe, you probably will not feel loved, you may feel neglected or threatened instead. To get out of this situation you have to be extremely smart and determined . Even then, when you get out, you will feel like an outsider.
After the author tells what happened in her own life, in the last chapter, she discusses what we can do to fight the terrors of poverty. I have been about some of the so called solutions that did not work. She offers intelligent concrete things that our government can do. I wish that this book was required reading for all legislatures.
I highly recommend this book if you want to know the true impact of poverty. The first step is to learn not to imagine. Real experiences can make indelible impressions in your life but if you do not have those experiences, you must educate yourself.
I received this Advance Reading Copy of Born Bright from the publisher by a win from FirstReads. My thoughts and feelings in this review are totally my own.
March 7, 2017
This is a brave and personal memoir of how poverty, transgenerational trauma and the racial history works in America. It centers around the author's life growing up in many parts of California and finally Nevada to reach collegiate life at Howard University in the 80s and 90s. It is very fascinating story of girlhood surrounding her relationships with the members of her family, friends and community. The author also discusses the highs and lows of her relationship with her mother, giving a really sad story of being a young mother.
It is also a great remainder that grit is always necessary to achieve and that people can touch your life in the slightest way and change its trajectory forever.
Honestly, there were parts of the story that could have been left out but the book is only 238 pages so there was alot of filler.
However, it is good simple, quick read. Skip the audiobook, it is very monotonous.
It is also a great remainder that grit is always necessary to achieve and that people can touch your life in the slightest way and change its trajectory forever.
Honestly, there were parts of the story that could have been left out but the book is only 238 pages so there was alot of filler.
However, it is good simple, quick read. Skip the audiobook, it is very monotonous.
July 27, 2020
I heard a brief interview with Mason and thought I would pick up her book. I am glad I did. It is a very approachable quick and easy memoir that gives lots of context and voice to those that live in poverty. Most of the book is memoir, but she does provide some policy suggestions in the last chapter. Generally I just have my highlights below; this is her life and perceptions of it, I guess I'd rather leave it in her words:
"Growing up, I knew many kids in my neighborhood who were smarter and more capable than me, and they didn't make it out."
"In public conversations about poverty, very little consideration is given to the preconditions for success or the maximization of opportunity in society. These preconditions include quality schools and institutions in neighborhoods, sufficient food, safety, access to adequate health care, stable housing, and the resources and critical information needed to negotiate complex social and political institutions."
"Our environment--our homes, schools, and communities, along with our primary caregivers and daily interactions with the outside world--signals to us what we can expect to become or how far we can go."
"freedoms are often denied to children living in poverty, whose minds are consumed daily with thoughts of survival and questions about their next meal, safety, or housing, concerns they may never speak aloud."
"It was fine if I did my work, but if I did not, there was minimal pushback or consequence. This was the case for most of the Black and Brown students in my classes. Every once in a while, we got a teacher who cared, but for the most part, we were passed along from grade to grade whether or not we mastered grade-level expectations."
"The truth is that there was a hostile undercurrent for students of color in those classes. The teachers ignored us and waited for us to fail. The White students included us in conversations only for group projects, when they were forced to do so. When and if we excelled, it was viewed as an anomaly or fluke. For some students, I imagine the invisibility, isolation, and constant feeling of never being good enough drove them out."
"If, as a nation, we believe consciously or subconsciously that these students will drop out, go to prison, get pregnant, or end up in low-wage jobs, the system or institutions will bend to those expectations and treat the students accordingly. The environment, including the teachers and helpers, will also reflect those expectations."
"the choices low-income and poor people make must be understood within the context of the environment in which the decisions are being made and the limited options available to them."
Overall it is highly recommended as an insightful glimpse into the underclass.
"Growing up, I knew many kids in my neighborhood who were smarter and more capable than me, and they didn't make it out."
"In public conversations about poverty, very little consideration is given to the preconditions for success or the maximization of opportunity in society. These preconditions include quality schools and institutions in neighborhoods, sufficient food, safety, access to adequate health care, stable housing, and the resources and critical information needed to negotiate complex social and political institutions."
"Our environment--our homes, schools, and communities, along with our primary caregivers and daily interactions with the outside world--signals to us what we can expect to become or how far we can go."
"freedoms are often denied to children living in poverty, whose minds are consumed daily with thoughts of survival and questions about their next meal, safety, or housing, concerns they may never speak aloud."
"It was fine if I did my work, but if I did not, there was minimal pushback or consequence. This was the case for most of the Black and Brown students in my classes. Every once in a while, we got a teacher who cared, but for the most part, we were passed along from grade to grade whether or not we mastered grade-level expectations."
"The truth is that there was a hostile undercurrent for students of color in those classes. The teachers ignored us and waited for us to fail. The White students included us in conversations only for group projects, when they were forced to do so. When and if we excelled, it was viewed as an anomaly or fluke. For some students, I imagine the invisibility, isolation, and constant feeling of never being good enough drove them out."
"If, as a nation, we believe consciously or subconsciously that these students will drop out, go to prison, get pregnant, or end up in low-wage jobs, the system or institutions will bend to those expectations and treat the students accordingly. The environment, including the teachers and helpers, will also reflect those expectations."
"the choices low-income and poor people make must be understood within the context of the environment in which the decisions are being made and the limited options available to them."
Overall it is highly recommended as an insightful glimpse into the underclass.
June 14, 2016
Born Bright is a thought provoking memoir. It explores growing up poor and Black in an America which is invisible to those attempting to look outward and an America which is invisible to those who live outside the walls of poverty. This book topples a few of those bricks. A powerful writing. I received this through Goodreads.
September 24, 2017
Wow! I'm not sure how to put all of my feelings and emotions about this book into a single review. It is a true account of black girlhood stepped in poverty, sexual violence, neglect, and hope. In this memoir, Mason uses beautiful prose to take the reader through her dark and poverty stricken upbringing. The story while one of redemption is not linear. Through this journey, the author does not defend or persecute key people like her mother who oscillates between neglect and jealousy of her daughter, her mother's lover who sexually abused her, teachers that praise and ignore her, or the people in the neighborhood(s) that, like her, are just trying to survive. Eventually, through her own tenacity and the strained help of a teacher she makes it to Howard University, but there she is met with completly different struggles. The book is a rallying cry for a closer examination of poverty and wealth in the US. I will update my review when I have a bit of distance from the book, but it was truly excellent and a must-read for anyone working with young girls.
October 10, 2016
I was goodreads giveaway winner of the book "Born Bright" C.Nicole Mason writes a well written book about growing up in California. She was born to a teenage mother. She spent her childhood moving a lot and going to a lot of different schools. She tells how one teacher in second grade told her she was a bright girl and had potential. This teacher's words gave Nicole the confidence to try her best in school in spite of all the obstacles growing up. She spent her childhood struggling many times and having to prove herself to many of the schools she attended. She wound up getting to go to a college and make something of herself. Today she is successful in her career. It is nice to read a book where someone who has faced many obstacles to grow up and be successful. Glad I got the chance to read her book.
January 8, 2017
Mason is courageous to lay her story bare. She uses her own life as an example of US poverty. She finishes the book with a solid policy recommendation and some follow up on important people from her life, not just hopes and dreams.
The story of her friend Rachel made me cry. Her fear and impostor syndrome led her out of her possible escape and back to where she started. Her mother's fear (?) or misunderstanding actually stifled her dream. But for that one event, would Rachel have made it through college?
This is the type of book we all should read to get a better understanding of our neighbors.
The story of her friend Rachel made me cry. Her fear and impostor syndrome led her out of her possible escape and back to where she started. Her mother's fear (?) or misunderstanding actually stifled her dream. But for that one event, would Rachel have made it through college?
This is the type of book we all should read to get a better understanding of our neighbors.
January 21, 2017
Excellent read! This is a great resource for anyone who desires to understand the long term impact of poverty. I highly recommend it for case managers, teachers, school administrators and social workers.
Want to read
August 12, 2016found on novelsandnonfiction.com
October 5, 2016
Well worth the read, truly enlightening book about the complexities of poverty in our country.
October 17, 2016
This is a GREAT book!!! This documentary supports what this book is saying!!
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/fil...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/fil...
October 22, 2018
This is a book I hope everyone reads. Dr. Mason tells her story of growing up poor and black in America and the heroic amount of grit it took to escape that cycle of poverty. Growing up poor and white, with a seemingly similar personality to the author (staying out of trouble, investing myself in schoolwork, looking after siblings - more as a coping mechanism than anything else) I found it especially fascinating how much privilege I had just through the societal structures that are in place in white neighborhoods (better libraries — which I frequented often, more resources invested in schools, more kindness from the justice system, less violence on the streets). This book, although it doesn’t delve into the white experience, opened up some pathways in my brain about the duality of poverty — how poverty feels different to those with different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
If anyone has recommendations of books that tell firsthand accounts of poverty from racial and ethnic experiences beyond white and African American, please leave it in the comments. This is something that I’d love to continue exploring.
If anyone has recommendations of books that tell firsthand accounts of poverty from racial and ethnic experiences beyond white and African American, please leave it in the comments. This is something that I’d love to continue exploring.
March 20, 2022
Born Bright is written by an African American woman who spent most of her life living in poverty. She writes about her mothers relationships, unstable jobs, and her several childrens affect on her upbringing. I found this book to be very eye opening because it reflects on her entire childhood and the struggles she faced. In the end of the book, she dedicated the second to last chapter on how to work to solve the poverty issue in America. This information was very interesting, and I enjoyed how she incorporated factual information into the recollection of her own life.
March 12, 2023
This memoir highlights the barriers to any kind of success black people in poverty face, contrary to the assumption of many that they just don't help themselves enough. It makes clear that finding a way out is very difficult. The writer does find her way out and eventually becomes a university graduate, but her journey in doing so proves the point of why many don't.
September 4, 2022
Riveted - I wanted to think I was educated and knew something about struggles and poverty. This book taught me a new perspective and I’m grateful for it. We can never stop learning about people who aren’t like us and have different struggles and experiences. Let’s make the world better by helping change perspectives.
September 10, 2016
What a ride. This memoir follows the life of a girl born to a 15-year-old mom and grows up among the very poor and uneducated. I felt like I was peeking in the lives and homes of several of my classmates from elementary/high school. How eye-opening it would have been to have read this book back then to better understand their circumstances and behavior. The abuse and ugly language these parents inflict on their small children, the preying boyfriends and accompanying drugs and drug dealing they invite to live in their home with their helpless children, poor schools - how do they even stand a chance?
Notes:
*The author is now educated with a Doctorate and does speaking engagements to try and solve poverty and get funding and solutions. She is always enraged when, as talking to crowds of wealthy, white people, they raise their hands and suggest things like, You should have those kids, who get free lunch at school, sweep the floors after they eat so they can earn that lunch and know that things aren't really free! When it was already mortifying enough to have to be in the free-lunch program through no fault of theirs, but their ignorant parents who also knew nothing different because they were born into poverty and back it went.
*Thank goodness for the good teachers who recognized her smarts, helped her advance and opened up opportunities for college and aid. With just a few phone calls to people they knew at the college, they were able to get her in and get it paid for.
*One thing that struck me at the very end- she updated the readers on different friends/family that she'd mentioned in her book. One bright girl, Rachel, who seemed to have promise, was able to go all the way across the country to a Virginia University, but after the first semester, she had to return home because she couldn't pay the tuition. Months later, she found a financial aid check from the college that would have paid for it. It was stuffed in the back of her mom's drawer. Her mom had got it in the mail and hid it, thinking it was a big bill. -!!!!!!- maddening! Completely threw Rachel's life off course and she never went back and just plugged along in the old neighborhood, had two babies with her now-in-prison boyfriend and works as a CNA. How many lives are thrown off course because of just a small thing like that?
*The author is about my age and it was fun to see her enjoy the some of the same things I did as a kid - like chinese jump rope, for example.
*She mentioned the Rodney King riots of 1992 and all the looting and destruction around her - her childhood neighborhoods burning to the ground. While she was living it, our senior class was using it as material in our Senior Follies production - we built cardboard store fronts and had people dress up and act out the looting. Like fools.
I want my (teen) kids to read this one.
Notes:
*The author is now educated with a Doctorate and does speaking engagements to try and solve poverty and get funding and solutions. She is always enraged when, as talking to crowds of wealthy, white people, they raise their hands and suggest things like, You should have those kids, who get free lunch at school, sweep the floors after they eat so they can earn that lunch and know that things aren't really free! When it was already mortifying enough to have to be in the free-lunch program through no fault of theirs, but their ignorant parents who also knew nothing different because they were born into poverty and back it went.
*Thank goodness for the good teachers who recognized her smarts, helped her advance and opened up opportunities for college and aid. With just a few phone calls to people they knew at the college, they were able to get her in and get it paid for.
*One thing that struck me at the very end- she updated the readers on different friends/family that she'd mentioned in her book. One bright girl, Rachel, who seemed to have promise, was able to go all the way across the country to a Virginia University, but after the first semester, she had to return home because she couldn't pay the tuition. Months later, she found a financial aid check from the college that would have paid for it. It was stuffed in the back of her mom's drawer. Her mom had got it in the mail and hid it, thinking it was a big bill. -!!!!!!- maddening! Completely threw Rachel's life off course and she never went back and just plugged along in the old neighborhood, had two babies with her now-in-prison boyfriend and works as a CNA. How many lives are thrown off course because of just a small thing like that?
*The author is about my age and it was fun to see her enjoy the some of the same things I did as a kid - like chinese jump rope, for example.
*She mentioned the Rodney King riots of 1992 and all the looting and destruction around her - her childhood neighborhoods burning to the ground. While she was living it, our senior class was using it as material in our Senior Follies production - we built cardboard store fronts and had people dress up and act out the looting. Like fools.
I want my (teen) kids to read this one.
July 5, 2021
C. Nicole Mason is one very smart woman. She’s a graduate of Howard University and has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is currently a professor at Georgetown and the CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research here in DC.
Born Bright is Mason’s memoir of growing up as an academically gifted African American girl. It was interesting for me to contrast her experiences as a poor African American girl who was academically gifted with mine as a poor white girl who was academically gifted. My family was so far below the poverty line that families making 100% of the federal poverty line seemed wealthy to us. Nevertheless, nobody ever doubted my giftedness or tried to hold me back from achieving my potential because of my poverty. Mason was not so privileged. Nobody expected her to achieve anything and she was actively discouraged from aiming for the success she ultimately did achieve.
Mason starts her book by telling a story that illustrates how people now use her success as an excuse to blame African Americans for not bootstrapping themselves out of poverty. But nobody should ever have to face the lack of support for achieving their goals that Mason had to overcome, and we can’t blame those who don’t have her luck and determination for not living up to their potential.
Born Bright is Mason’s memoir of growing up as an academically gifted African American girl. It was interesting for me to contrast her experiences as a poor African American girl who was academically gifted with mine as a poor white girl who was academically gifted. My family was so far below the poverty line that families making 100% of the federal poverty line seemed wealthy to us. Nevertheless, nobody ever doubted my giftedness or tried to hold me back from achieving my potential because of my poverty. Mason was not so privileged. Nobody expected her to achieve anything and she was actively discouraged from aiming for the success she ultimately did achieve.
Mason starts her book by telling a story that illustrates how people now use her success as an excuse to blame African Americans for not bootstrapping themselves out of poverty. But nobody should ever have to face the lack of support for achieving their goals that Mason had to overcome, and we can’t blame those who don’t have her luck and determination for not living up to their potential.
October 30, 2016
This book is really worth reading! It shows me how life could be like as a person of color living under poverty in America. Sometimes people are easy to take things for granted. Children who were born in middle class families may never worry about what to eat the next day. But the poor kids always suffer from hunger. What's more, some of them may possibly have a father who is alcoholic or even drug dealer and mother who left them in their young age. Life between these children can be so different. Because of poverty, the plight of these kids becomes really distressing, such as losing the opportunity to study in good school districts, having less educational resources, getting trapped and hardly having faith in themselves...It's so miserable and cruel.
By the way, I believe most of us like weekends, right? Me too. However, it was not until last week that I realize some kids dislike weekends. A teacher told me: "One kid told me on a Friday afternoon that he dislike Friday and weekends. Because he would not have food until next Monday. His family could not afford enough food, so the free meals at school are the only food he could have the whole week. " I felt so sorry for him. But what can I do? What can we do?
It's Halloween tomorrow.
God bless all of you.
By the way, I believe most of us like weekends, right? Me too. However, it was not until last week that I realize some kids dislike weekends. A teacher told me: "One kid told me on a Friday afternoon that he dislike Friday and weekends. Because he would not have food until next Monday. His family could not afford enough food, so the free meals at school are the only food he could have the whole week. " I felt so sorry for him. But what can I do? What can we do?
It's Halloween tomorrow.
God bless all of you.
November 9, 2016
Born Bright by Nicole Mason is about a girl named Mason, who was born into poverty, homelessness, and other hardships she had to face. Her spouseless mother gave birth to her at the age of 16. She was born in Los Angeles, California. Mason loved to learn and was very smart. Mason was uncomfortable balancing these two different things. She was judged at school because she wasen't like the other kids in her classes. She had a different look that fit in at home and in her neighboorhood, but not with the kids at school. Mason manages to escape poverty later on. She moved to Los Vegas with her grandma. She worked very hard. After completing school, she went off to college with a small amount of money. This book taught me that poverty is a hard thing to battle. I would recommend it to other teenage girls and anyone who wants to learn about poverty. The theme is to stay strong no matter what comes your way.
September 25, 2016
Beautiful memoir of a young girl born black and in poverty, and her many struggles as she grew up and eventually was able to go to college and graduate school and escape poverty. She also uses her story to show just how high the barriers are, and how difficult they can be to overcome. I'm just floored by her descriptions of schools where no one cared if anyone even came to class, or sat and listened. When she did manage to get into advanced classes, teachers and students acted like she shouldn't have been there. We have a long ways to go and a lot of work to do before we can claim that all kids get fair opportunities in life. Books like this help us realize that.
December 13, 2016
Nicole grows up in poverty but is determined to make her way into life. Struggling with poverty, drugs, and other adversties with a help of a mentor Ms Bowman she gets a full ride to Howard Universtity. My favorite part is toward the end of the story when she is at Howard and having to go there on her own she hears another girl's mother pitying her. The quote is "They saw me as a girl who had no one to help me but I saw it as I had made it! SUCH A POWERFUL INSPIRATIONAL BOOK ! Born Bright will cjange and open your eyes to a lot of things!
September 11, 2016
I chose this book because of the connections I thought I had with the author's story. We didn't have as many as I thought, but we still had some. This book was definitely thought-provoking and heartfelt. It makes you want to fix the systems, for me, particularly the education system. Although I would've liked to know more about her college experiences, this was a good read.
March 27, 2019
This book considerably changed my view on generational poverty and how American culture, government, institutions, and civic organizations are failing to help families who are living below the poverty line to improve their living conditions, education levels, and overall quality of life. The writer is correct. Middle class families have no idea what it is like to live in poverty.
February 9, 2019
This book needs to be read by many. To enlighten others on the struggles faced by people of each economic background.
This book was a ball of emotions for me. READ THIS BOOK! Then Share it with someone else.
This book was a ball of emotions for me. READ THIS BOOK! Then Share it with someone else.
August 28, 2016
I really enjoyed this book. It is an eye-opening view to growing up in a life of poverty...both materialistically and emotionally.
September 5, 2024
Thought-Provoking and Informative Read
Sometimes, we can make a simple decision such as what to wear for the day or what job we accept, or even what book to read and it can make a big difference. Think for instance of some folks who survived the terrorist attacks on 9/11. There were people working on high floors where many died, yet some were saved because they stopped to grab a coffee or pick up a prescription. And what about some of the ladies who wore high heels to work that day. Many women's heels were found in the streets or seen in the stairwells by those trying to escape before the towers collapsed. What happened to them? Did the empty shoes left behind allow them to escape? Or did they lose their lives?
Reading this book has made me realize on a deeper level just how hard life can be simply based on the color of your skin, where you live, whether you have a mom AND a dad raising you etc. It has opened my eyes to the fact that poverty impacts not just an individual but it can determine the quality of the schools your child goes to, their education, what job opportunities exist for those of working age, whether college has been presented as a choice for every individual. Poverty and the color of your skin impacts the quality of your food and medical care. It impacts the way people are treated in stores, schools, jobs, and housing. Yes, slavery is now illegal but racism and discrimination is unfortunately alive and well even today. THAT is not only sad, and wrong but it cannot and should not be tolerated in our world today!
This book tells the story of the author, C. Nicole Mason and her childhood being raised by a young single mother who did not have the skills or emotional or physical maturity to raise children but did anyway. Along the way Nicole and her brother are exposed to poverty, violence, gang activity, having loved ones or friends in prison, addiction, indifference, sexual abuse and more. But Nicole is smart and begins to realize that education is the key to a different kind of life, and that she, her brother, her cousins and every child deserves equal opportunities to grow and excel. They deserve to be told that they too can dream, set goals and reach for them. Nicole does just that and more.
Very interesting and well researched book. Informative and sobering statistics.
Sometimes, we can make a simple decision such as what to wear for the day or what job we accept, or even what book to read and it can make a big difference. Think for instance of some folks who survived the terrorist attacks on 9/11. There were people working on high floors where many died, yet some were saved because they stopped to grab a coffee or pick up a prescription. And what about some of the ladies who wore high heels to work that day. Many women's heels were found in the streets or seen in the stairwells by those trying to escape before the towers collapsed. What happened to them? Did the empty shoes left behind allow them to escape? Or did they lose their lives?
Reading this book has made me realize on a deeper level just how hard life can be simply based on the color of your skin, where you live, whether you have a mom AND a dad raising you etc. It has opened my eyes to the fact that poverty impacts not just an individual but it can determine the quality of the schools your child goes to, their education, what job opportunities exist for those of working age, whether college has been presented as a choice for every individual. Poverty and the color of your skin impacts the quality of your food and medical care. It impacts the way people are treated in stores, schools, jobs, and housing. Yes, slavery is now illegal but racism and discrimination is unfortunately alive and well even today. THAT is not only sad, and wrong but it cannot and should not be tolerated in our world today!
This book tells the story of the author, C. Nicole Mason and her childhood being raised by a young single mother who did not have the skills or emotional or physical maturity to raise children but did anyway. Along the way Nicole and her brother are exposed to poverty, violence, gang activity, having loved ones or friends in prison, addiction, indifference, sexual abuse and more. But Nicole is smart and begins to realize that education is the key to a different kind of life, and that she, her brother, her cousins and every child deserves equal opportunities to grow and excel. They deserve to be told that they too can dream, set goals and reach for them. Nicole does just that and more.
Very interesting and well researched book. Informative and sobering statistics.
May 10, 2018
Ah, this book! You need to read this book!
I have attempted to read this book on three other occasions before work and life got in the way and I'd have to return it to the library. This time, I was determined, and once I started it took me only about 24 hours to finish.
This book speaks SO MUCH to me, about a world I knew existed but never truly understood. I grew up in the 1990s, in an all white neighborhood in the middle of nowhere. There was poverty, and we saw it, but it never touched me personally. As a child, I did not understand the advantages that had been given to me, the opportunities I was offered simply because I was raised in the family I was raised in.
This book really helps an outsider to understand how hard it is to break the poverty cycle. Dr. Mason shows it beautifully through her own choices - deep down she knew many of the choices her friends and family were making were the wrong choices, but pressure, and loss of hope sometimes encouraged her to make the same choices. The system set up to equally educate all students did not offer her the same experiences I had. I am not sure at what point I was told, "To get into college, you must take the SATs". I just know that I sort of always knew that. It put me at an advantage over other students, like Dr. Mason, who had no idea. They were always behind the eight-ball, so to speak.
The ending of this story is bittersweet. You want to be happy for the writer, and to say to yourself, yes, she made it, she fought the poverty cycle and she won. Yet at the same time, you see all of those she left behind, still stuck in the endless cycle, and you realize just how much is left to be done.
This book is excellent, and you should read it.
I have attempted to read this book on three other occasions before work and life got in the way and I'd have to return it to the library. This time, I was determined, and once I started it took me only about 24 hours to finish.
This book speaks SO MUCH to me, about a world I knew existed but never truly understood. I grew up in the 1990s, in an all white neighborhood in the middle of nowhere. There was poverty, and we saw it, but it never touched me personally. As a child, I did not understand the advantages that had been given to me, the opportunities I was offered simply because I was raised in the family I was raised in.
This book really helps an outsider to understand how hard it is to break the poverty cycle. Dr. Mason shows it beautifully through her own choices - deep down she knew many of the choices her friends and family were making were the wrong choices, but pressure, and loss of hope sometimes encouraged her to make the same choices. The system set up to equally educate all students did not offer her the same experiences I had. I am not sure at what point I was told, "To get into college, you must take the SATs". I just know that I sort of always knew that. It put me at an advantage over other students, like Dr. Mason, who had no idea. They were always behind the eight-ball, so to speak.
The ending of this story is bittersweet. You want to be happy for the writer, and to say to yourself, yes, she made it, she fought the poverty cycle and she won. Yet at the same time, you see all of those she left behind, still stuck in the endless cycle, and you realize just how much is left to be done.
This book is excellent, and you should read it.
May 4, 2019
C. Nicole Mason was born to a teenage mother in the 1970s near Los Angeles. Because of the color of her skin and her family's deep poverty, not much is expected from her as she grows up. Despite her privation at home, the danger she faces from a drug-dealing and abusive stepfather, and racist teachers and school administrators, Mason excels at school and eventually finds her way to college and a PhD. However, she knows that many people in her situation are unable to go as far as she did. In this memoir, she also addresses the systemic issues that keep other people of color and children from single parent families in poverty.
I picked this book up because of this list. In the description, I noticed some similarities to my own upbringing (young single mother, poverty, housing instability, etc.) and eventual trajectory (college, grad school), so I wanted to read this to get to learn about Mason's experience. There are many differences between the two of us, and race is the biggest one. The way that Mason was treated, especially by people in authority and in her schools was completely foreign to me. It was a frustrating experience to read about and to know that in the 30 or so years since then a lot of those things are still happening to students of color now.
I appreciated the author's acknowledgment that her situation is unique and not something that is possible for everyone with our current societal limitations. So many times people look at successful people who overcame the odds and think that means it is possible for everyone if they would just try harder. Mason acknowledges the people in her life that got her where she needed to be, as well as the social programs like Head Start that she was able to use. I would have liked more about her college experience and her life after that, but realize that was outside the focus of the book.
I highly recommend this book to essentially everyone, but especially those wanting to learn more about poverty and race in the US. It could be an eye-opening read.
I picked this book up because of this list. In the description, I noticed some similarities to my own upbringing (young single mother, poverty, housing instability, etc.) and eventual trajectory (college, grad school), so I wanted to read this to get to learn about Mason's experience. There are many differences between the two of us, and race is the biggest one. The way that Mason was treated, especially by people in authority and in her schools was completely foreign to me. It was a frustrating experience to read about and to know that in the 30 or so years since then a lot of those things are still happening to students of color now.
I appreciated the author's acknowledgment that her situation is unique and not something that is possible for everyone with our current societal limitations. So many times people look at successful people who overcame the odds and think that means it is possible for everyone if they would just try harder. Mason acknowledges the people in her life that got her where she needed to be, as well as the social programs like Head Start that she was able to use. I would have liked more about her college experience and her life after that, but realize that was outside the focus of the book.
I highly recommend this book to essentially everyone, but especially those wanting to learn more about poverty and race in the US. It could be an eye-opening read.
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