30 years ago I read Growing up with Privilege and Prejudice in the New York Times and was blown away. In cleaning out some old files I found a copy I made of this article, an article I never forgot reading. How awesome to have written something so impactful. Karen Russell was so honest and generousl in sharing her very unique life experience . I had no doubt that she would continue to be awesome and found myself wanting to see what has become of her three decades later which brought me to this clip. Seeing her speak about mentoring was great and it is evident she is insightful, funny and compassionate. I loved how she glows with pride when speaking of her father. Ironically I imagine he is equally proud of the woman she has become. I am an Italian Welsh woman from upstate NY and then was raised in Queens. The only thing in common I have with Karen is that I am also named Karen. But I was fascinated with her writing and perspective on the complexity of racism. I personally viewed racism from a very different frame of reference. Periodically over the last 30 years I have imagined how great it would be to discuss this with Karen. It is on my bucket list.
I been mentoring since 2010 and have mentored 30 young men, the reason why is because when I was young I didn’t have one and as a result I had a hard time growing up with as my dad was ill and wheelchair bound, if I had a mentor like myself it WOULD have been different On the other had because I had a one on one support teacher in school I achieved great things in the end! She made the difference!!
This is the NBA Legendary Bill Russell daughter, Karen Russell. Her father, Bill Russell, Died on July 31, 2022. He won ("11") NBA Championship rings. R.I.P. Bill Russell, you have a Beautiful, Intelligent, Highly educated daughter, Karen Russell.
This starts well and makes a good point about the importance of mentoring if you can cope with stories about Dad and a bit of name dropping 'Maya Angelou is an old family friend' then it is interesting.
I met Karen when she was 18 years old, and I've often wondered what became of her since then. She was an idealistic young John Anderson campaign volunteer in the 1980 Republican primary. What stuck in my mind was that she was the first really-tall woman (maybe 6'4" or 6'5"?) I'd seen who was not awkward or mannish. Some of dad's big money had obviously gone into charm school and stylish, tailor-made clothing. Not surprised that she went on to Georgetown and Harvard.
