Black American Refugee

Adult nonfiction

      "But I know I survived because I was never able to make America my home.  I never watched my childhood neighborhood illuminated by helicopter lights in search of criminals or inundated with hipsters in search of apartments.  No state, city, or town has been a mother to me, cradling generations of my family, only to see them destroyed by unemployment or poverty."

     Like so many other kids, Tiffanie Drayton, author of Black American Refugee: The Narcissism of The American Dream, and her siblings had emigrated from Trinidad and Tobago to join their mother who wanted a better life for them than what their native land had to offer.  She'd saved enough for them to join her by working as a nanny.  This was the American dream, right?

     Except that for Drayton it gradually morphed into the American nightmare.  She had arrived excited about the American dream, sure her chosen land would "love her back." Her first clue that that was not the case came on an interstate car trip when she was eight.  Her family had stopped at a hotel with a pool.  When white guests objected to their presence she and her siblings had to leave the pool.  In middle school remedial classes were full of Black kids while she was one of the few non whites in advanced classes.  The family of a boyfriend was aghast at the color of her skin.  Eventually as an adult she saw her relationship with America as toxic and chose to return to the homeland she had left as a child in order to thrive.

     If you really want to understand how racial inequality is still very much alive and well in our supposedly post racial nation you owe it to yourself to read Black American Refugee.

On a purrrsonal note, on Friday I was able to get help submitting my 42 page internship portfolio and my Upward Bound summer job application and resume.  So I went to the Bookstore and bought myself the cat, Muffin, I'd promised myself as an incentive for working my ass off.  We had a purrrfect day for the Maine Day parade.  I marched with International Students Association and carried the Japanese flag.  (Jules)

I knew she could get that work done.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to all who participated in the parade.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

     

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