---
title: Julius Ewungkem Jr. '20 Publishes Essay in The New York Times
description: Julius Ewungkem Jr. '20 published an essay in the New York Times.
---

[Comenius Corner - Moravian Academy](https://blog.moravianacademy.org/blog)

# [Julius Ewungkem Jr. '20 Publishes Essay in The New York Times](https://blog.moravianacademy.org/blog/julius-ewungkem-jr.-20-publishes-essay-in-the-new-york-times)

 Written by [Julia Fox](https://blog.moravianacademy.org/blog/author/julia-fox) | Aug 31, 2020 3:02:13 PM

**Julius Ewungkem Jr. '20** published an essay in the *New York Times.*

Ewungkem, who is bound for Harvard University this fall, submitted the essay as part of *The New York Times* Your Money feature, "[Pictures of Themselves: The 2020 College Essays on Money](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/your-money/pictures-of-themselves-the-2020-college-essays-on-money.html)." He is one of four recently graduated high school seniors from across the country to have his essay featured in this collection. Submissions "touch on money, work or social class." 

**Read Ewungkem's piece below: **

*Some challenges transcend time, constantly popping up in different forms*

*As a society, we strive to quantify success*

*“If you work hard, you’ll see results”*

*This phrase is constantly used to blame others*

*And a specific group of people have felt the brunt of this attack*

*Yes, slavery in the U.S. was abolished over 150 years ago*

*But let me paint a picture*

*Let’s say your great-great-great-grandmother was a newly liberated slave in 1863.*

*How free is she truly?*

*She might be free, but the world still doesn’t have to treat her equally. No one is obligated to give her a job. She is the same person that she was the week before.*

*And her kids*

*They are now growing up with a mother who can’t read or write while at the same time struggling to live in a society evolving to house a new race*

*Are her children supposed to immediately succeed?*

*And what about their children?*

*And their children?*

*We are so quick to look at issues* 

*High rates of crime, poverty, and unemployment*

*And begin to point fingers*

*Yes, the civil rights movement won equal rights for African-Americans sixty years ago*

*But segregation is as prevalent as it’s ever been*

*So, who is really to blame?*

*It’s easy for me to look at some of my best friends from my middle school and blame them*

*“They chose to skip class” “They chose to fight in the hallways”*

*But did they choose to grow up in an environment that doesn’t value education?*

*Did they choose to grow up with one parent who is working two jobs?*

*Is something wrong with them, or am I just lucky?*

*Lucky to have two parents who’ve put education before anything*

*Lucky to attend a high school with plentiful resources*

*We no longer have laws in place that are made solely to hold back those of certain groups*

*But that doesn’t mean the effects aren’t the same*

*And as we continue along our journey*

*We must ask ourselves*

*“Whose choices truly created this outcome?” and “How do we fix this mentality and issue?”*

*Many solutions have been proposed*

*But one seems to be truly effective in both the short and long term*

*Education*

*Not just of the perpetrators, the ignorant, but as well as those who suffer from this society*

*We all need to learn more, not just the students but the teachers as well*

*Even as I spread awareness, I know there are so many who know more and there is so much to learn*

*But is he truly racist or did he grow up in a family that perpetrated those views?*

*An attack should not be our first response, rather, we need to teach*

*Show the history, the ups, the downs*

*The accomplishments, the breakthroughs, the struggles*

*Show why we are in the state we are in*

*And for me personally?*

*I’ll try*

*To break into homogenous communities and try to teach*

*To show my dreads, curls, and naps*

*To not wait for that next person to say something, but rather be that next person*

*To always be proud of who I am*

Ewungkem's essay originally appeared in *The New York Times* on August 28, 2020. Read the full feature [here](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/your-money/pictures-of-themselves-the-2020-college-essays-on-money.html). 

[View full post](https://blog.moravianacademy.org/blog/julius-ewungkem-jr.-20-publishes-essay-in-the-new-york-times)

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