Once again, someone has picked up their keyboard and whacked the hornet's nest of contemporary racial discourse in America. This time it was a self-described "short, balding and mediocre certified public accountant", named Gene Marks, writing for Forbes magazine. Marks used the occasion of President Obama's recent speech about inequality to engage in a thought experiment entitled, "If I Were a Poor Black Kid". This experiment yields the following breakthrough insight into escaping poverty:
"It takes brains. It takes hard work. It takes a little luck. And a little help from others. It takes the ability and the know-how to use the resources that are available."
Needless to say, this essay prompted some critical responses. Root.com has a nice round-up of some of them. Ranging from profound to funny, they capture the general critique of essays like "If I Were a Poor Black Kid", namely that they fail to take into account the history of racial oppression, contemporary structural inequities and white privilege.
However, I believe that there is truth worth considering in this essay. Changing the woeful conditions under which too many inner-city, poor, black youth live does require intelligence, intense striving, seizing opportunities offered by chance, assistance from others and creatively using available resources. Marks is absolutely right in that regard. What he fails to recognize is that it is the exercise of these virtues in dismantling structural racism that will make the most lasting and meaningful change in the lives of these youth. In this regard it's all of us who need to be smarter and work harder, not just poor black kids. Personal responsibility and social responsibility must go hand in hand if we are to achieve true prosperity for all Americans.
Article comments
1 - Kim Morris
Stop writting! Please!!
2 - Spo101
If I were a poor Black kid I'd start a revolution to hold the ruling class accountable for their waste, fraud, abuse of power, scandal, corruption, sexual deviancy, bold-faced lies, media consolidation, welfare for the rich, war profiteering, Enron/others from a corporate crime wave and violations of our Constitution? I am somebody
3 - Dr Cruel
Meanwhile Asian kids in mainland China who once had a future of starvation and misery under Marxism now have a chance at a decent future, perhaps even affluence. Industrious Chinese workers and entrepreneurs are becoming rich off our sense of entitlement and self-indulgent "liberal" arrogance.
Stop writing? I can see how some might feel that way, especially if their prosperity comes from being a member of the elitist welfare bureaucracy. But this writer might have the only solution to our ever worsening dilemma. If we continue on our course, black kids won't just have to worry about hunger and prejudice - they'll have to face starvation and social collapse. Plenty of white kids will be joining them too.
Go to sub-Saharan Africa if you want to see where arrogant Leftist stupidity will take you. Go to Eastern Europe. Go to North Korea. The end result is no secret.