This is an iHeart Podcast. America is changing. And so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
I'm a smah in Washington, D.C. I'm Tristan Redman in London and this is the Global Story. Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang from Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.
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President and General Counsel. at the Center for Equal Opportunity. Today he'll share with us a beautiful story about the person who impacted him the most. His mother. For a long time, I've been a Steve Martin fan, right?
So I was a kid that grew up in the 80s and 90s at the height of the Steve Martin Mania, I suppose. I like the quote from Steve Martin's film, The Jerk. where he says It was never easy for me. I was born. A poor black child.
I like that because It's a funny line because Steve Martin's white. But for me, I like the quote because it describes a little bit of my past. I'm the very Light-skinned or bright-skinned biracial black man.
So I've oftentimes in my life been asked. What are you? And I've used that line. But at the same time, it does describe. The way I think of myself and my upbringing, you know, Four.
I was actually born inside of the easternmost edge of Appalachia, but we didn't stay there very long at all. My father developed a bad habit. And my mother, trying to get him away from bad elements in that area, moved us out of that area to Florida, Palatka, Florida, which is a very, very small place. Back then, it's still somewhat small now, but certainly in an impoverished, almost rural kind of area of north central Florida. The only thing that was in operation there, I think, at that time was a paper mill.
But we didn't stay very long. The marriage fell apart. And You know, we went through and saw all these sorts of terrible things that people, no matter Their race or where they come from. When you're poor, you oftentimes experience these things. returs all of them when she was escaping Her first husband, my father.
And her second husband, who was abusive and alcoholic, were homeless for periods of time. We lived in a batter women's shelter. I remember is where I learned how to roller skate. We had to. Move into housing projects, and we move to apartment after apartment after apartment, section eight, housing apartments.
And I switch schools, I think, almost every year. until I was in sixth grade. when um i don't know through what magic Uh my mother, who was raising us, on a high school diploma, was able to purchase a house. It felt like we'd really hit the lottery. You know, that was in fifth grade and for the first time.
I think we're almost the first time I went to the same school more than one year. I'm very. Walkie. To have had the mother that I had, and I still have my mother. was relentless One of the things that distinguishes my mother from other people in terms of her ability to overcome adversity.
is the day in, day out examples that she set. There was no big sing. that she overcame. It was the ability to understand and to stay consistent when everything was pressing against her. She raised three.
poor black kids on our own with a high school diploma. as a white woman in all black communities and To the extent Folks understand what it's like in Southern Black communities. For white women, you'll understand that it wasn't always easy for her to have black kids. and to consort with black men in these communities, it's frowned upon. She was mistreated many times as a result of simply being.
a white woman in these black communities with black kids. And that flowed to us to some extent as well, but I only now realize just how difficult it must have been for my mother. who has The drip. Um you know, of a god. to take three Hard-headed.
Young children separated only by four years. All three of them. and raised them by herself with a high school diploma. working multiple jobs all of my life. I'm re I'm just incredibly impressed by what she was able to do.
By herself. You know, she worked at a fast food restaurant called Chicken Charlie's in Palatka, Florida. It doesn't exist anymore, long gone. But you know, she'd work these long hours and we would have to So it'd be babysat. I mean, this was before, I think, my sister was even in kindergarten.
We'd have to be babysat by multiple different people throughout the day at different homes and so on and so forth so that she just get through adult shift. We moved. To Gainesville, Florida, where she got a better job than Chicken Charlie's, which was. McDonald's. Our life improved.
She got a job at McDonald's in Gainesville, Florida, and moved us into housing projects in Gainesville, Florida. She overcame. She could see. She couldn't see the future. She had a vision.
for a better life for her and for us.
So she was willing. to take those little baby steps. And she knew in the aggregate that eventually we would be better off. even if it didn't seem like it. from day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year.
Um She had a vision that eventually saw us. climb, scratch, and claw away. to our own house. By the time I was 10 or 11 or 12 years old. Uh to you know having you know, one of her children.
become a lawyer, be the first person to graduate from from college. She saw this sort of vision. as she could create. Situation for us, even though. She only had a high school diploma and was trying to do this all on her own and did do this all on her own.
It was never going to be guaranteed. that one day she would have her own house. It was not guaranteed that one day she was going to. move on from working at McDonald's to getting her college degree, which she did. to being a licensed clinical social worker, which she became.
to getting a master's degree, which he eventually did. To having multiple cars, to having material things, to seeing her children succeed. There was no. One incident that I can point to and say that that was it. That's what made me think that she had grip.
It was the day-to-day With no thank you. to take us from one place to another. That is very, very different. than most places In the world? most places in history.
It's a truly exceptional and unique American experience. in the American Dream. You can and should be able to advance without arbitrary barriers to optimize your own tablets, and interests and desires. to your own idea of success. That's why people are just clamoring to come to this country and always have.
The simple connection to what you inherited or your birth. Your race? Your lineage? is not the sort of thing that can advance you. and wife.
At the same time, You know, that sort of thing is not going to. holds you back.
So long as you possess.
Some inner Merit. and value in words. This idea that if you possess those things, The world is your oyster. This country is your oyster. The sky is the limit.
You can go anywhere. And a special thanks to the Philanthropy Roundtable, their True Diversity Initiative. encourages Americans to embrace all the qualities that make us unique individuals. Because there's so much more to each of our stories than what's defined by a group identity or other superficial traits. Devin Westill's mother's story here.
on our American stories. America is changing. And so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
I'm a smachhalid in Washington, DC. I'm Tristan Redman in London and this is the Global Story. Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. What kind of man?
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This is an iHeart podcast.
