Growing up in Buffalo, a small city in upstate New York, I didn’t live in a single family home surrounded by a white picket fence with my mother and father. I wasn’t raised with a golden spoon in my mouth and a nanny to attend to my every beckoning call. But instead, I grew up around individuals with low paying (to no paying) jobs, drug dealers, food stamp users, Women Infant Child (WIC) program participants, and public assistance seeking individuals.
