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." 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.