So, there is a new feature on iPhones that allows you to blur out unwanted features in the backgrounds of photos. I found this really helpful until I realized that I always prefer photos of myself that distort the truth about where I am standing or where I live. This photo was taken on the corner of a street that was being repaired, alongside an NJ Transit bus route and rush hour traffic in a section of Newark that I frequent.
I always prefer to blur stuff like that out. In professional settings, I rarely share the truth about where I grew up or what my home is like out of fear of being inadequate or judged.
I grew up in and around Newark, NJ – a place infamous for being dangerous. But if I asked a non-native what they know about this town, how many positive things could he/she tell me?
Today I witnessed 80 high school seniors, all members of the up and coming Cooperman College Scholars Program, proudly walk across a stage after their respective names and names of the college/university they will be matriculating into were read.
Harvard, Villanova, Pitzer, The College of New Jersey, Rutgers, Barnard, Franklin and Marshall, etc.
This is just a fraction of the excellence that inner cities can (and do) produce, yet this fact is often overlooked. And when I blur out my reality, I continue to perpetuate the idea that excellence is a rare commodity in urban cities. I won’t be doing that anymore.
Growing up in a city like Newark has given me an incomparable level of grit that has allowed me to receive multiple internship offers very early in my college career, network with undergraduates and professionals all over the country, and navigate seemingly difficult situations. While this is not the experience of every inner-city youth, it is ignorant to assume that insane levels of greatness do not exist within “infamous” cities.
EMPLOYERS: DO NOT BLUR OUT POTENTIAL CANDIDATES BECAUSE OF THE “CONNOTATION” OF THEIR ZIP CODE OR NAME, AND IN THE SAME BREATH CLAIM THAT YOU ASPIRE TO HAVE A DIVERSE WORK SPACE.
My fellow Cooperman Scholars and I, along with thousands (if not millions) of other inner city students, have arrived and are builders of a better world. Get ready.
Source : Linkedin
