Yet Another Installment of WUT I DON'T EVEN

[filkertom]

"If I were a poor black kid..."

This entry was originally posted at http://filkertom.dreamwidth.org/435758.html. You may comment there or here, although LJ tends to have a livelier conversation at this time.

Comments

[bayushisan]

I really think that opining on if "I were a poor black kid" or poor anybody, coming from a middle-age, middle class white man is not to be taken too seriously.

The author likely meant well, but it still sounds bad.

Besides what if that poor, black kid has a learning disability or just doesn't do well in certain classes. You can try and try and try and still fail sometimes.

I agree that opportunity is there, and that anyone can become a success, but it takes more than just trying really hard and wanting it baddly enough.

[pyrephox]

The author, I suspect, did not mean well at all.

He is writing for Forbes. The percentage of poor children of any ethnicity reading Forbes is...slim to none. He is a rich, white guy writing to other rich, white guys to reassure them that the conditions of children in poverty and children struggling against systemic oppression are not their fault, because if those children deserved to succeed, all they had to do was work hard. Like the Forbes readers did. Even the ones whose fortunes largely came from inherited money, influence, and opportunities.

He 'meant well' in exactly the same way a person saying "Get a job" 'meant well' when passing by a homeless person on the street.

Let's not give this guy any more credit than he deserves.

[maiac]

The irony is that, the headline notwithstanding, the author of this arrogant, condescending, clueless essay about how all you need to do to escape the ghetto is work hard in school consistently wrote "If I was...". Which shows he doesn't really value education enough to learn proper grammar.

[batyatoon]

Yeah, I noticed that too.

[pandoradeloeste]

And here I was just thinking "I haven't hit my quota of 'splaining today". Thanks ever so. (By which I mean, gross.)

[alverant]

This could almost a political song sung to the tune of "If I were a Rich Man".

Seriously though, this is a total lack of understanding of how things are for others. I hate it when people say that all it takes is hard work to get rich. It's bullshit. Always has been. Always will be. You can work hard, sacrifice friends and family, your health, all for the sake of a job and still fail. I'm convinced that getting rich is largely a matter of luck and a willingness to exploit others. Granted there are exceptions, but when it comes to business climbing up the ladder means stepping on everyone below you.

Getting rich from your own hard work is a rarity. Getting rich from other people's hard work is too common. People shouldn't use their own life stories as a yard stick to measure others. A Ferengi rule of Acquisition says you shouldn't confuse luck with divine intervention. I say when it comes to success, don't forget to include luck in your explanation.

[starcat_jewel]

The American Dream mythology has no place in it for either luck or privilege. Being in the right place at the right time, knowing the right person, getting cut a break because you look and sound like the sort of person who gets cut breaks... none of that is factored in at all.

This is also part of what drives the vanity-publishing industry. If you can achieve anything by working hard enough, and you've worked your heart out on writing the Great American Novel, and you still can't find a publisher... well, obviously it must be someone else's fault, because you've worked hard! And there's always a predator out looking for people like that.