Born Bright is a firsthand account of the social inequality that prevails in American society from the perspectives of Nicole. C. Mason as a poor girl and as an empowered woman. Born Bright a Young Girl’s Journey from Nothing to Something in America’s cover shows a colorful picture of a brown skinned little girl playing with her shadow near a wall painted yellow. The memoir follows the Author’s life from her earliest recollections about elementary school life through her struggles as a teenage girl in a poor neighborhood to her destiny as a trailblazer. The story addresses the reality of social inequality and lack of equity in American institutions and points out the futility of the approaches used to combat poverty among the marginalized communities.
Nicole begins by describing a pivotal moment in her life at Abbott Elementary a school that was for the poor kids raised by the predominantly black and Latino community of Lynwood, California. At the time, she recalls she was terrified of her teacher and when the teacher summoned her to her desk at the front of the class she began bracing herself for punishment not expecting what her teacher was about to tell her (Mason 10). She remembers that she could not understand what it was her teacher meant by telling her to keep it up and that she would go far. It was beyond her comprehension what this going far business entailed because her entire world at that time consisted of a few blocks around he school and neighborhood and she knew little about the working of the world beyond.
She describes the dangers that have persisted generation after generation to teenage girls through her mother’s experience and her own. She addresses the hesitancy of parents to educate their children to give them sound advice on matters to do with sexuality and changes that happen as children grow up into adolescent and young adulthood. She recalls that her teachers admonished her to call her mother instead of her sister to attend meeting between teachers and parents. Nicole thought it was funny and at the time failed to realize that her mother was too young because she had given birth to her when she was only a teenager (Mason 27). Nicole Mason recounts her attempt to communicate with her mother about sexual abuse she was contending with in her own house that was only solved when her aunt agreed to take her.
Her life as a teenager was full of many challenges that were compounded by being a girl in a place full of predatory men. As a girl she had to deal with unsolicited sexual advances from her mother’s lovers. However she managed to thrive at her school though she had long given up on her efforts to impress her teachers (Mason 111). This had more to do with their dismissal of her potential and the limits they had assumed for her. Even her friends and family had little expectations for her and limited her destiny to being a common worker with career prospects limited to being a janitor, bus driver or an attendant at one of the many casinos. She recalls the biased and unfair treatment from her high school principle that resulted in her being given a suspension which she dreaded because going home meant that she would have to deal with sexual abuse.
Her encounter with her teacher at Abbott Elementary is one of the best illustrations that support her concern that the poor are wrongly blamed for their situation. Throughout the book she provides similar illustrations that show that under current circumstances the official narrative that anyone can achieve the American dream if they try hard enough is not realistic (Mason 16). People from a background similar to hers grow up without the knowledge or comprehension of what they could become and those that do rarely succeed to escape poverty. Like many researcher she rightly concludes that poverty and social inequality can only be significantly addressed when policy makers reorganize the operational strategies employed by institutions within the American society towards outcomes that eliminate oppression and marginalization of fellow humans.
Nicole Mason has come a long way and her book is a testament that she is not only a survivor but can thrive in the current society where tyranny and lack of human decency are becoming prevalent at an alarming rate. Her book paints an unflattering picture for anyone interested in bringing about the long coming change that begins by accepting the situation on the ground. The book is revolutionary and a useful tool that can help heal the scars of the errors of the past of the American society and the rest of the world. In conclusion it addresses social problems such as racism and sexism and how they can be mitigated when each member of society takes it upon themselves to make addressing this problems a personal mission.