Written By Tanya Brockett
When you look at the success of someone like Dr. Dan Young, you have to marvel at all that he has been able to accomplish in his short 47 years. He stands out now because of his accomplishments, but he used to stand out for other reasons.
On Successfully Blending In
Dan’s family was no stranger to success. His father was a Harvard graduate who worked at the largest bank in Delaware, and his grandfather, who had a master’s in education from UPenn, was the first Black principal in Delaware. It is no surprise, then, that Dan would become successful in higher education. But situations were different for Dan growing up. His dad’s success meant they could live in an all- white neighborhood. “There probably wasn’t another Black family for about five miles,” Dan remembers. “That had an interesting effect on me as a young person. Unfortunately, you are used to being around people who aren’t like you. You grow up, at least in the 80s and 90s, with this feeling that you’re not as attractive as other people. You’re that person that when you ask a girl out around where you are, they say, ‘I really would like to, but my dad would kill me.’ You grew up in this weird situation where you’re
felt comfortable.” Like many of us, Dan had to learn to “code switch very well.” You can step into any room and fit in. What happened to Dan at age 21? While doing an internship from grad school at the University of Delaware (which was close to 5% Black), he found it easy to relate to everybody because of the variety of experiences he had in both the Black and white communities. “It allowed me to be like my real self. You learn to really be a chameleon, and you learn to really live to be a man of all seasons.” (Like the Rudyard Kipling poem, “If,” that he memorized in his fraternity.) “I'm good with talking to billionaires. I'm good with talking to the janitors who work in the buildings,” because of the situations he grew up with.
special, but you don’t want to be special.” Dan felt what many integrated Black kids experienced during that time. Growing up in a suburban area and school district where you are too Black for the white students and too white for the Black students. “Now what that does for you, as you get older, is you learn to empathize a lot,” Dan says. When you see someone who doesn’t fit in and is off to the side, looking like an outsider, your level of empathy and compassion goes up because you know what that is like. “I'm also used to being in situations where I'm very comfortable being uncomfortable. I'm very comfortable in chaos. Because probably for the majority of my life, at least before the age of 21, I never
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