I Am a Product of my Environment
It became cliché and even I began saying, “I don’t want to become a product of my environment… I don’t want to become just another statistic.” I perpetuated the deficit narrative as a form of dysfunctional consensus, not agreement. I always disagreed with the destructive narrative but as a young person, I did not feel confident enough to cordially interrogate the offensive messages or the negligent messengers. Sometimes when young people ask relevant and bold questions, adults perceive the inquiry as disrespectful, more so coming from a black female youth.
