Friday, December 16, 2011

"New Rules" (In Response to Gene Marks)

1) Before you presume to lecture poor black kids, you first have to know some poor black kids personally. And not in a "that kid delivers my newspaper" kind of way, actual friendship.

2) Before you tell poor black kids that it's okay that their schools are failing, as long as they work hard, you have to send YOUR kids to one of those failing schools. When it's your flesh and blood on the line, then you can accept the quality of those schools.

3) Before you start telling poor black kids that all it takes is smarts, hard work, and a little luck, you'd better be able to honestly look at your own situation and consider whether you had to be exceptional to get there, or whether just "being you" worked out pretty well for you. And you'd better be able to admit that "a little luck" in the case of an American white person includes having been born into the wealthiest society in human history, one whose wealth originates, to an enormous extent, with the bondage of other human beings.

4) Before you post an article about poor black kids on a website aimed at rich white guys, you need to ask yourself: "Will writing this make me look like an enormous douchebag?"

NOTE: While this post is a response to another person's writing, to which I'd normally link, I'm not going to link to Gene Marks' "If I Were a Poor Black Kid" article on Forbes.com, because from what I hear he gets money for page-views, and I don't want to drive up his traffic. Bad enough I read the piece and gave him $.000001 for his efforts...