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...
Listen to This: The Race To Ban Abortion
2 years ago
1 comment:
Thanks for you insightful response to Mark's inane piece. I had similar thoughts, having posted a response on his blog. I'm hoping that a good satirist will pen a parody of his piece. You know, something like, "If I were a talented, eight year old Ecuadoran boy, I would . . . " "If I were a wealthy, skinny white model, I would . . . " And so on. Here's a copy of my posted comment on his blog:
"I am sure that you have heard from many teachers and other public servants who work with students from a variety of economic, ethnic, regional, and cultural backgrounds. Nevertheless, your essay compels me, a public school teacher, to write. It is not clear why you felt inspired to write this piece. What is the main purpose that you’re hoping to achieve? If it’s to inspire that hypothetical poor black kid you’ve conjured up, is a commentary on Forbes the best venue for doing so? Does your hypothetical poor black kid read Forbes or even know what it is? Perhaps a Forbes commentary about what you would do as a hypothetical, wealthy 1%’er would be more suited to the readership. Or rather to the point, you could work as a tutor or as a Big Brother to a real, live poor black kid from a real ghetto. He or she might benefit from a personal, supportive, and steady connection with someone such as yourself who could guide them to see beyond the deprivation of their life circumstances. You could achieve real, measurable results mentoring to build one or two individual lives rather than simply postulating with broad, prescriptive brushstrokes. It’s not easy work, but you seem like a real smart and resourceful guy. If I were a smart, middle-class, white guy who cared, I’d roll up my sleeves and travel to the trenches to see what really goes on and what I could do to help. As an aside, I’ve always wondered when people make the argument that you’ve made, would you be willing to move to the inner city and/or the projects to raise your children? That would be the great social experiment by which you could test your hypothetical situation."
Post a Comment