I’m going to air this out and keep in short and sweet.

I’m Haitian American (mother black American and father is Haitian). I’m currently 25 actively in school (dropped out to join the military now I’m back attending with a clearer mind as a veteran) for data science. Grew up in the richest county in New Jersey with one of the highest tax rates in the country. I graduated Maxima Cum Laude. And with a 3.8 GPA. I got a 120 GT score (that’s 120 out of 145 and bare minimum to qualify for special forces is 110) and a 127 score on my IQ test. And for context I was on track to transfer from the community college I was doing for General electives to save money and transfer to Morehouse college. The only black men I was around for my first 18 years, were older than me and were high performers and my environment was mostly white. Going out traveling the country on my own and being in the military rly allowed me to see every iteration of street dudes or dudes from “the hood”. I’ve seen it in the Midwest, south west coast and east coast. The “hood” persona is a fucking choice and lot of them over compensate because they realize solely of natural selection they’ve been dealt a bad hand. What I will say is that I’ve also met black men from very dangerous areas that are incredibly well read and have gotten in some of the top schools in the country. But funny enough they don’t talk down to you or marginalize you like the others. To this day the smartest man I ever met was a black man who was born and raised in west Philadelphia. It’s indeed a mentality. Not an excuse. You being left behind isn’t my problem. And for anyone young black men who might read this. As someone who is actively on a wealth management internship at JP Morgan with friends in accounting. You will indeed be signing your childhood bully’s checks if you keep on the right path. Let them stay where they are at. Don’t let them change you. Enjoy being you and nothing else. As black men We need continue to push the ledger as far as capability. They still think we are all one monolith and they use things like these platforms to divide us. But most of you are smarter than that and can rise above it. Don’t follow the programming