This has nothing to do with empathy. The author took advantage of systems built to help people and exploited systems built to help people for personal gain, screwing over everyone that follows the rules and not giving back to the system that has given him so much. Not only that but he was able to use the color of his skin to land himself a job in one of the most privileged fields at one of the most prestigious schools in the world. 
Really what&#x27;s so wrong with living elsewhere? Dominican Republic has a high HDI and a decent economy. People move all the time, the author had no family in The United States and his mother probably had way more connections in the Dominican Republic than the US, it would certainly have been easier for her to find work in her country of origin too.