Micheal Mayson in "Black White Other: Biracial Americans Talk About Race and Identity"

This is an excerpt, taken from Micheal Mayson, who is featured in "Black White Other: Biracial Americans Talk About Race and Identity" by Lise Funderburg:


" After High school, I wanted to be a doctor, for a lot of different reasons...but my mind wasn't sophisticated enough to process all that, so I went to the University of Michigan and pursued my medical career, and I didn’t make it very far.

I didn’t make it very far for a lot of reasons. One was because, I didn’t know it at the time, some people suspected it, but I was probably in the middle stages of...alcoholism, and two, because I wasn’t ready. This was the world, University of Michigan was the world, and there were a whole lot of white people up there who didn’t give a fuck about anything other than going to class and getting their grades. Not that there's anything wrong with that , but I was still into being a little social boy, and there’s no time to be social when chem 123 and math 113 are knocking you on your [ expletive] butt.

You got time to crack your book, eat some lunch, crack your book, eat some dinner, crack you book, and maybe go to sleep. So to make a long story even longer , my grades started really [ expletive] up and I started [ expletive] up and the worse my academic career got was inversely proportional to my drinking career.

By the first semester of my third year, I was kicked out. I just squeaked past my first year; I think I had a 1.99 first semester, and was put on academic probation. Shocked the [ expletive] out of me, because I’d always done B work, without working, so to work my ass off and get a 1.9-Yo!". ( Funderburg 230-231).



Despite the fact that nearly 1/3 of freshman drop out of college, and about half don’t graduate at all ( let alone on time) it is still a challenge to find stories about their experiences. The image is always of the college graduate, never the college dropout.

Despite his big dreams, he realizes to late that he was taking on a little too much to chew. Unprepared for the academic commitment, he flunks out, and starts a downward spiral of alcohol, depression and low grades. Many reading this would be surprised at how many kids leave college alcoholics. How he rides the wave of academic probation is a mystery for me. I either flunk out or get top grades. It has caused me ALOT of pain....

For many, college is a social experience. The first taste of freedom, little supervision and self-determination. However, The incredible focus and dedication in High School rarely carries over to college, where it is most needed. I remember my parents dropping me off at college and my mother asking why so many kids were walking around so late at night. My father replies "where some of these kids are from, their parents don't let them walk around at all". That's just how it is....

To quote Mr.Mayson:
"You got time to crack your book, eat some lunch, crack your book, eat some dinner, crack you book, and maybe go to sleep"

I think I will write that in big letters and put it on my wall...