"If I were a poor black kid"

An article titled “If I were a poor black kid” was written after President Obama gave a speech about how this is the time where people in the middle and lower classes to be able to make a living for themselves. The article addresses the problems that inner city black kids face and how there are other kids that have a greater advantage just because of where they were born and to who. He talks about what he would do if he were in that situation and how he would work hard to achieve his goals and succeed. After he talks about how hard achieving these goals are and states “Is this easy? No it’s not. It’s hard. It takes a special kind of kid to succeed. And to succeed even with these tools is much harder for a black kid from West Philadelphia than a white kid from the suburbs. But it’s not impossible. The tools are there. The technology is there. And the opportunities there”. He is showing that if you are determined and willing to work hard for what you want then you will still be able succeed. However, there are many things that he is not thinking about. For starters the author is a man named Gene Marks and is a white male who doesn’t live in the inner city. A question that kept going through my mind while reading this was, how do you know what you would do or how hard it is if you never went through it yourself? I agree with what he says about someone who works hard will achieve more than one who doesn’t, however there are many X factors that he is not thinking about that could stop someone who is determined enough to work hard for what they want. For example, someone who wants to learn more in school but the school doesn’t have good teachers who are willing to teach will affect the kid. Or if the kid is being bullied in school, that will have an impact on his grades. Someone who is black and gets the worst of everything just because of the color of his skin will affect how he looks at work. People in the suburbs or nice neighborhoods often overlook how lucky they are that they don’t have to go through many of the problems that others do and see it as something that doesn’t happen. Things like this do happen, but why should someone have a worse chance than another just because they were born 10 miles apart?

A response to this article was written by Jenée Desmond-Harris, a middle aged black man. He talks about how Marks only talks about what things he would do if he were poor with things that others that have no access to. In a response to what Marks would do if he were a poor black kid, Harris states “But also, there's no word in the piece on how Marks imagines that he would, as a poor child, suddenly be infused with the perspective and sophistication of a middle-class adult. In addition, he, perhaps unintentionally, admits that his advice is useless to all but a select few gifted, mature and lucky children.” He is showing that if you are not that special kind of kid then you will not be able to succeed. Also Marks only talks about things he would do if he were poor in the city and never states what he would do if he were black also or any of the things that make it harder. I agree with Harris that people who never went through being a poor black kid in the city won’t be able to understand why it was hard.

Hidden Bias

In class I took a hidden bias test, however I feel like the test does not accurately measure or test if you really have any hidden bias. I don’t believe that test was an accurate way to see if you are racist or not. The test consisted of pictures of both European Americans and African Americans and words that were either “good” or “bad” that would go along with a set of pictures. You had to go through at a fast pace or it wouldn’t have worked. During the test I felt as if I was more pressured to get the answers right rather than trying to just go through the test. In the end my results were that I had no bias towards one group over the other, but I feel as though this is not true. I know that I have slight preferences in people and saying that I don’t won’t make me not have those preferences. I believe that there is bias within everyone because people will always prefer one over the other, but trying to deny these ideas will not help at all. The first step to making everyone equal is to admit that as of right now they are not. You can’t determine if someone has a racial bias towards one group or the other just by mixing pictures and words together.

White like me

The description of Tim Wise's book, White Like Me states how while racism hurts people of color, it helps people who are “white like him” even if they are not racist. I was given the chapter of denial to read and based on this chapter I agree with Wise’s statements. Wise talks about how, white people deny racism and how dangerous that can be. Wise states “White denial has taken on new and more aggressive forms, as with the ubiquitous claims that it is we and not black and brown folks who are really being victimized. In other words, not only is white privilege a myth, but reverse racism or reverse discrimination, is the real problem.” Wise is showing how whites believe that there is nothing wrong with how the black community is being treated and how it is the whites that are being discriminated. They are oblivious to the fact that the black community are being discriminated against just because of the color of their skin while they are gaining the benefits. When people think about racism, they think about how African Americans and whites have an equal opportunity to be successful and they think about people like Opera Winfrey. However, why should an entire race be determined off of the few that became very successful? When replying to a critic about how there have been people who were able to succeed, Wise replied with “But so what? Did that mean that folks shouldn’t have been fighting for an end to racism, simply because a few individuals had been able to “make it?” In other words, what do individual success stories have to do with larger social realities?” I agree with this statement because although there have been many people of color who have “made it” there is an even greater number that aren’t able to succeed because they are constantly being looked over due to their race.