Debra Dickerson is the living embodiment of the American Dream. Born and raised in the ghetto, her life was distinguished by lacks—lack of money, lack of role models, lack of hope. Despite these odds, Dickerson not only survived, but thrived—at the Pentagon, in Harvard Law School, and as a prominent writer and thinker. Though she reached the top through hard work, luck, and a lot of pluck, she never forgot where she came from. “There was no way I could turn my back on my birth class,” she wrote on her Debra Dickerson Web site. “My unique perspective keeps me from straying too far into self-congratulation and never lets me forget that though my belly is full, that even though society treats me with respect, my bus driver and my doorman face daily dehumanization.”
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