"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.