If I Were A Poor Black Kid

Education is indeed the key .

Against bigotry and hate.

pompous verbosity, tempered with hubris, displaying an astonishing insensitivity

‘If I were a poor black kid’ gets it wrong
By Fahima Haque

So let’s get this straight, Gene Marks (and by extension, Forbes magazine) really thought he was helping when he posted his ‘If I were a poor black kid?’ piece? Because its facetious tone came across as the clueless musings of a guy who’s full of himself.

The structural inequalities facing young black kids face--or poor children of any race--will never be remedied through an ill-advised and preposterous tutorial of bookmarking Web sites like Cliffnotes or Khan Academy. Marks clownishly writes about what young black kids can do in a way that can only be categorized as bigoted and stereotypical.

And I’m not the only one with a negative reaction to the piece published Monday, readers across the Internet reacted and responded.

Dominion of New York, a New York City based black magazine wrote :

Now, it’s obvious that hard work, intelligence, and assistance from others are necessary to succeed. I grew up in a trailer in rural Alabama and I graduated from Stanford University. I am publishing this blog post at a start-up magazine that I founded with capital that I — along with my African-American husband, a Brown University graduate — saved from our wage earnings. We work hard and our families have always worked hard too (See slavery). The problem is that Marks seems to think it’s okay to require black kids to be “special” to “succeed.” I don’t.

Good magazine weighed in as well:

You find this sort of thing a lot among the white, moneyed, conservative set: "If only blacks and Latinos would work harder, they'd be fine." I don't think Marks and people who think like that are malicious, but I'd love to ask them how best to focus on your studies when all you can think about is the very real possibility that your mother is being assaulted in the bedroom where you're supposed to find sanctuary at night. How best to prioritize learning to read rigorously over scheming to get home and be the man of the house in the stead of the father who left?

Imani Gandy, voice behind the Angry Black Lady Chronicles blog wrote:

Privilege and racism are embedded in the system, and grand statements like “Try harder! Get a computer (which a poor black kid likely can’t afford in the first instance)! Get into private school!” are offensive in their banality.
So Mr. Marks, the next time you want to opine about life as a poor black kid, just stop. You know nothing of growing up black. You know nothing of growing up poor. You know nothing of the systemic problems in education that result in many black kids, poor or otherwise, being left behind. It’s not a matter of just “trying super hard and really wanting to succeed.” Your assumptions are faulty, and frankly, you sound like a jackass. A well-meaning jackass, perhaps, but a jackass all the same.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/therootdc/post/if-i-were-a-poor-black-kid-ge...

Out of all the responses ( so many ) I like this one the best,
Especially the last line .

Forbes's Epic Fail:
Why Getting Into A Good School Is Hard For A "Poor Black Kid"

Yesterday, Forbes' Small Business contributor, Gene Marks, laid out the solutions for a poor Black kid in West Philadelphia in his article, "If I Was A Poor Black Kid." There have been excellent responses to the privileged laden inanity that Marks writes, but I want to focus specifically on the realities of a Philadelphia public school student.

And I would use the technology available to me as a student. I know a few school teachers and they tell me that many inner city parents usually have or can afford cheap computers and internet service nowadays. That because (and sadly) it's oftentimes a necessary thing to keep their kids safe at home then on the streets. And libraries and schools have computers available too. Computers can be purchased cheaply at outlets like TigerDirect and Dell's Outlet. Professional organizations like accountants and architects often offer used computers from their members, sometimes at no cost at all.
Marks' lists technology access as the key to success, but even if Marks' mythical poor black kid was as resourceful and driven as was portrayed in the article, it is highly unlikely that he has access to technology. This is the state of computer and library access in Philadelphia:
Most Philadelphia public schools no longer have libraries where Marks' "poor black student" could access the wonders of the Internet. Just 19 percent of city public schools have a certified librarian this year and the district currently has only 48 librarians. (source)
Only about 50 percent of Philadelphia residents have daily Internet access, even fewer at home. That is supplemented but not replaced by the resources of the 54 branches of the Free Library of Philadelphia, which have been hit by budget cuts.
Want to help: Library Build is a new non-profit organization that seeks to provide that seeks to provide Philadelphia public school students with fully functional, complete libraries, and access to dedicated librarians. West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC) renovates school library spaces, collects and donates books, and provides trained volunteers to staff and run the libraries in West Philadelphia.
Marks' doesn't begin to explain how mere knowledge of the existence of tools such as Google Scholar, Diigo, Evernote and Skype is enough to transform the education of the "poor black kid." More than likely a knowledgeable adult would need to be available for guidance.
Next, Marks' mentions Philadelphia's magnet schools, highlighting Masterman, Central and Girls High as possibilities for the "poor black kid." Focusing on these three schools, they are very difficult to get into and their demographics are markedly different from the larger School District of Philadelphia. Out of the 11,438 9th graders in Philadelphia, 990 or 8.7% attend those three schools. Admission to those schools is fierce. J. R. Masterman School accepts fewer than 1% of the students that apply from outside of its middle school. Due to its larger size, Central High School is easier to get into, accepting 24% of its applicants. Admission to the Philadelphia High School for Girls is of course limited to girls.

There are other great magnet schools in Philadelphia, including George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science, Girard Academic Music Program, Philadelphia High School for Creative And Performing Arts, Bodine High School for International Affairs, Science Leadership Academy, and others. Yet there are not enough seats in these magnet schools for every "poor black kid" to attend.

To be a "poor black kid" in West Philly and receive admission to one of these magnet schools, you can't just show up on the first day of ninth grade. All of these magnet school have admissions requirements that must be met for consideration, including excellent grades, excellent standardized test scores, and excellent attendance not just in 8th grade, but in all middle school grades. You need to know the application process, and have a parent, teacher, or guidance counselor that can help you navigate this process. None of which was addressed in Marks' privileged article.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gene-demby/post_2681_b_1149303.html

Trolling The Internet With 'If I Were A Poor Black Kid'
Kashmir Hill, Forbes Staff

This week, Forbes contributor Gene Marks wrote a story titled “If I Were A Poor Black Kid.” As soon as I saw the title, I groaned. “This is going to be offensive,” I thought. And it was. There have been many responses around the Web, including this and this and this and this and this and this and this.

In addition to staff writers (of which I am one), Forbes has a stable of 850+ writers who are “contributors” — they get a little special tag on their pages that says, “The opinions expressed are those of the writer.” Forbes pays these folks for the unique visitors and repeat visitors they attract. They are recruited based on their professional track records and journalism expertise, and editors don’t usually see or approve of their posts in advance. Does having a payment model that rewards controversy encourage writers to bait readers with offensive material?

When I first became a blogger, I discovered very quickly that the Internet has pressure points — inherently controversial topics that, if pressed, will cause the Internet to go crazy. This usually translates to lots of readers and page views. When I was a legal blogger writing for law students and corporate lawyers, those pressure points included race, gender, prestige, and fashion. The first two are universal; the latter two were, I think, unique to legal readers obsessed with hierarchies and rankings, and a profession in which women still argue about whether high heels should be required footwear in court.

Writing a post in one of these categories meant you were assured a rush of comments and readers. And if you wrote a story in one of these categories that contained offensive ideas, you were guaranteed even more readers. Case in point: The post to get the most traffic in my three years as an editor at Above the Law was about a Harvard Law student who entertained in an email the idea that “African Americans are, on average, genetically predisposed to be less intelligent.”

While I was not paid by the page view, it was always gratifying to have a lot of people read and debate something that I wrote. That’s what often drives “trolls” — those anonymous commentators in blog comments and message forums that say outrageous things and make offensive claims; they desperately want a response. In an Internet world where money is made off of page views and user engagement, that can be good for business. And on a platform where writers are paid by visitor count, controversy and the resulting spike in readership can be lucrative for the writer.

Gene Marks has proved to be pretty awesome at trolling the Internet. He wrote a post shortly after Steve Jobs’s death about how he was a jerk, and another about how most women will never become CEOs. Like his current post, these produced a lot of outrage — and also a lot of traffic.

Marks’s current piece would have been far less offensive had it not been about race, if it had instead been framed as a piece about poor kids in terrible schools and the resources on the Internet they can use to supplement their educations (assuming they have high-speed Internet access). Without the “if I were a poor black kid,” this graf from his story is unobjectionable to me (except for the part encouraging kids to read Cliffs Notes):

““I’d use the free technology available to help me study. I’d become expert at Google Scholar. I’d visit study sites like Spark Notes and Cliffs Notes to help me understand books. I’d watch relevant teachings on Academic Earth, TED and the Khan Academy. (I say relevant because some of these lectures may not be related to my work or too advanced for my age. But there are plenty of videos on these sites that are suitable to my studies and would help me stand out.) I would also, when possible, get my books for free at Project Gutenberg and learn how to do research at the CIA World Factbook and Wikipedia to help me with my studies… I would use Skype to study with other students who also want to do well in my school.”

(I *wish* Ted had been around when I was a kid.)

Of course, a post about “tech tools for schoolkids” wouldn’t generate 200,000+ page views.

So what keeps people from trolling? When your name and face are attached to what you write, you start to develop what our CPO Lewis D’Vorkin loves to call “a personal brand.” I think of it as voice, authenticity, and reputation. As writers’ bylines become bigger and our photos become more prominent, this comes to matter more. After a certain amount of race- and gender-baiting, you establish a “troll” brand and that brand may become so toxic that you become irrelevant. And that is the worst fate for any writer (and every troll): to be ignored.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/12/14/trolling-the-internet-with-if...

The right and the top 1% are going to try and make this election about race.
( again )

They say that if you are poor , then it is your fault.
They say that if you have nothing or less than nothing , then it is your fault.

They say ( want ) government to be out of the business of helping you.Social spending is only for them and bailouts are only for them and tax cuts are only for them , but if you require something -- seek charity.

This IS a black and white issue, but not of skin color. It is CLASS warfare and not race warfare. Any color of person is affected , but predominately a person of color starts out in life with roadblocks against them.

It is NOT as easy as just going online -- so many do not have access
It is NOT as easy as signing up for this and that -- discrimination still exists
It is not as easy as just following a path -- there is not one marked for so many

When ALL of society succeeds , then we will be one .

Right now , all there is a gate and a tribe living beyond it with all of us left out.

Letter from a poor black kid:
Baratunde Thurston responds to Forbes' Gene Marks

The following letter is a response from a hypothetical child to Gene Marks' article in Forbes, titled "If I Were A Poor Black Kid." While completely fabricated, the letter below has a stronger basis in reality than does Marks'. In his article, Marks, a business and technology contributor to Forbes, argues poorly that poor black children should use technology to improve their station in life. The article is terrible.

Dear Mr. Gene Marks,

I am a poor black kid. I don't have great parental or educational resources. I'm not as smart as your kids. These are facts. In 2011.

The one smart thing I do everyday is read Forbes. It's what all us poor black kids do. Forbes is constantly reporting on issues of relevance to me and my community. This week, I found your article "If I Were A Poor Black Kid" printed out and slid under my door like all Forbes articles.

Thank you Mr. Marks. You have changed everything about my life. Thanks to your article, I worked to make sure I got the best grades, made reading my number one priority and created better paths for myself. If only someone had suggested this earlier.

But that was just the beginning of how your exceptionally relevant, grounded and experience-based advice changed my life. Thanks only to your article, I discovered technology.

Why did my teachers not teach this? Why isn't this technology mentioned anywhere in popular culture? I don't understand, but you do.

You listed so many different websites and resources, at first it was overwhelming. But I didn't let that deter me. I thought to myself, "If a successful, caring, complicated, intelligent man like Gene Marks says to do it, then I'd better head over to rentcalculators.org right now!"

I did not stop there. I became an expert at the CIA World Factbook, started using Evernote and made it my goal to get into one of those private schools you wrote about. Before your article, I never wanted anything more for myself. I used Google (thanks for the tip!), found the names and addresses of the school admissions officers, and showed up outside of their homes. It's like they were waiting for me. They smiled, waved and immediately told me about their secret scholarship programs.

Private school was exactly like you said it would be. I went straight to the guidance counselor, and I said, "You know everything there is to know about financial aid, grants, minority programs and the like."

And she said, "I sure do! And even though I don't know your name, I'm going to help you get summer employment at a law firm or a business owned by the 1% where you could meet people and show off your stuff." I love showing off my stuff, sir. You have no idea.

I took more of your advice. I got "technical." I had no idea I could get technical. I learned software!

From there it was just a quick hop to a top college, marketable skills and an immediate job offer from a businessman starved for talent. Did someone say recession? I can't see it!

The amazing part is that I did all of this in two days! All thanks to your article!

I didn't know any of these opportunities existed. My parents and I were too tired. We were all ignorant, and quite frankly, I could have figured it out sooner on my own if I'd had the brains to do so. Your article provided those brains. It wasn't about my parents or ways to improve the school system or how to empower the community. It had nothing to do with history or accumulated privilege or social psychology. No, I simply needed to want success more and combine that with technology. You taught me that I can do all this by myself, and I have!

With that one article, you solved the problems of millions. Imagine the good you could do with three or four articles! Please don't stop with poor black kids! What about children trapped in sex trafficking? How about undocumented migrant workers? And of course, there's women. Have you ever wondered why there aren't more women CEOs? I'm sure you have. You've thought about everything and figured everything out. You are a great man. Thanks again for teaching me about technology.

http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/14/letter-from-a-poor-black-kid-baratunde...

If I Were a Middle Class White Guy Writing About Being a Poor Black Kid

If I were a middle class white guy writing on Forbes.com about being a poor Black kid I’d be clueless. I’d be so clueless that I wouldn’t realize that I’m clueless, so I would not know that I should really, really step away from my expensive computer and not press send on my condescending, paternalistic and simplistic little essay that breezily fixes the problems of poor Black kids. I wouldn’t think, well, if these steps are so easy — use the Internet to get more learning and try real hard — then why don’t more kids do that? I mean, wouldn’t some of them have thought of that already? No, they wouldn’t because none of them are middle class white guys.

I wouldn’t think about how my cheery advice doesn’t really interact with the challenges of being a poor Black kid — from the lack of role models to poor schools to depressed employment opportunities to the lure of the drug game to the day-to-day difficulties of being poor that makes it hard to get out of being poor because of a system that’s constructed to keep you poor. I wouldn’t think about those things because I wouldn’t really know anything about them because I don’t have to. I could potentially solve some of my ignorance by interviewing some poor Black kids before I write about them, but I wouldn’t go do that because, you know, what if I get robbed. I saw that happen in a movie.

In my pithy, encouraging, bootstrappy message to the poor, Black kids of America I wouldn’t include a discussion of overcoming the challenges of racism — from the mind-numbing messages society sends to broken families to the paucity of opportunity to the overpolicing of poor Black communities, which leads to the prevalence of criminal records which makes it nearly impossible to get jobs. I wouldn’t realize that Black people who are applying for jobs with a clean criminal record are treated the same as white people with a criminal record, so the struggle to find a job is complicated by Black skin. I wouldn’t know that the recession has hit Blacks harder than it hit whites, so no matter what a Black kid does he cannot find a job if few exist.

I wouldn’t think about these things if I were a middle class white man because I never really think about racism because I don’t have to. Racism is something that happens to other people and I don’t really think about it that often because it’s complicated and it makes me uncomfortable to think about. I don’t even think about how race impacts my life, but I have a race card. You didn’t know I have a race card? Of course, I do. I don’t even have to pull out my race card for it to work. It works automatically. It’s accepted everywhere you want to be. Membership has its privileges.

If I were a middle class man writing about a poor Black kid I would assume that anyone who knows the world in the way that I do would make the decisions that I would make so I need only share with them the knowledge that I have. I wouldn’t think about how their environment might impact their ability or willingness to use that information. I mean, everyone has access to the Internet, right? Just turn it on and become a Google Scholar, and then Skype away to a better education. I wouldn’t think that some of them may lack Wi-Fi. I mean, everyone has Wi-Fi, right?

Look, I’m a middle class white guy on deadline at a big-time magazine, with no idea of the hornet’s nest I’m about to step into — I’m just trying to be nice and give some advice to some poor poor Black kids. I’m doing the right thing. I’m not even aware that the very gesture and the breezyness of my discussion is insulting because I’m wrapped up in a cocoon of white privilege that blinds me to the realities of being a poor Black kid, so I’m not even aware of how difficult it is to be a poor Black kid because my life has never been anywhere near as difficult. Thank God for that.

http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/15/if-i-was-a-middle-class-white-guy-writing-about...