Hey, I’m a poor Black kid. I just found out this morning that you’ve been talking about me. Sorry I couldn’t respond sooner, but I don’t have access to the Internet outside of school … and even in school we only have computer class once a week in the mornings and the teachers just have us play math games.
Anyway, I heard you all were handing out advice to me and all, which is cool. But, I thought it might be cool to, like, actually share some of what’s going on with me, too, and maybe you could re-think the advice you gave.
See, I’m a poor black kid and I’m about 5 years old about to enter public school. My parents never got married but were living together until I was 3. My Dad was always looking for work and he just couldn’t find anything. My folks started arguing and one day he just up and left. Now the reality is that an African American job applicant with two years of college is 3 times less likely to get a job interview than a White applicant with a high school diploma. A statistic that has remained constant for almost 30 years, that might’ve contributed to my Dad’s not being able to find a job and he and my mom breaking up. But I’m just a Black kid so I don’t know that.
I’m still a poor Black kid and now I’m 9 years old, and I’m doing terrible in school. I’m not sure why but I just have a lot of trouble concentrating in class and there are 30 other kids in here with me, and my teacher is trying but she’s really just working a couple of years to pay her husband’s way through law school. If I wasn’t a 9 year old kid I would know that Harvard University Professors have shown that IQ levels of Black, White and Latino kids are the same and Black students fall behind by second grade due to poorly trained teachers and bad schools. But I’m only 9 I don’t know any of that. All I know is that as a boy I’ve already been tracked as a discipline problem and put in remedial classes with mentally retarded kids. That embarrasses me, I get angry and I do even worse in school.
I’m not stupid, you know, I just have trouble reading. If I’m a girl there’s a 1 in 5 chance that I have been a victim of some type of sexual assault but it’s not like I have anyone to talk to about it. My mother joined the Army to get healthcare, she’s been deployed to Afghanistan and I’m living with my 63 year old grandmother. She has no idea what to do with me.
Yes, I’m still a poor Black kid. I’m 12 now and it turns out that the reason I couldn’t read well is because I needed glasses, but it took three years for anyone to identify the problem so I’m already a grade level behind and have a school record for fighting with the learning disabled kids. As a poor Black girl I’m hitting puberty, mom isn’t here to really explain things and grandma has no damn clue about anything. I mess around with boys who are older than me but I’m gonna be careful to not get pregnant. I get home from school, I don’t have any textbooks because the school system has cut the budget, so I’m supposed to read worksheets on history. See if I weren’t a poor Black kid and a rich person instead with an education, I might know that a large part of the academic troubles of African American youth stems from poor diet and nutrition. That simple healthcare needs like glasses or hearing ads are hard to come by for poor Black kids which contributes to difficulties in school and leads to disciplinary problems, poor records and tracking to low performance classes. But I’m just a poor Black kid, I don’t know any of that. All I know is I get home and watch a lot of music videos where people have a lot of s**t that I don’t have and it makes me mad. My Mom is dating some new guy with kids, my dad moved to D.C. with his new girlfriend and I spend most of my weekends hanging out with friends. We don’t get any homework because class is always about getting ready for standardized tests.
I’m a 15 year old poor Black kid and I am so tired of school. I’ve been put into this weekend program for ‘at risk youths’ whatever that means and these older kids from Temple come to the school and read to us and stuff. It’s actually cool. Derek and Tanya help me on weekends with math and tell me about college, Derek is from around here and he’s really cool. They tell me I can do anything and all that crap, but Tanya’s mad serious when she says I can write. I spend all winter break writing this story to show them in the spring and when I go back the teacher says the summer program was a ‘block grant’ that ran out or something. All I know is I don’t see Derek or Tanya anymore. It doesn’t matter – they were on some bulls**t anyway. I just want to get a job and get out of here.
If I wasn’t a poor Black kid, and I was perhaps a politician with any common sense I would have read thousands of reports showing that afterschool programs, in particular those that partner inner city Black youth with college-aged Black students reap incredible dividends in school performance, behavior and attendance for program participants. But I’m not a politician, I’m a poor Black kid, so I don’t know any of this.
There’s like only one kid in my school who went to college and he was playing basketball – I don’t play so what’s the point of talking about college? My grandmother died, so we had to move out of her house now I’m living in my Aunt’s house with my Mom and 7 other people. It’s cramped, I hate it and I can’t even think. I sneak out as much as I can. Dad never calls.
I’m 18 now, I guess I’m not a kid anymore but I’m still poor as s**t. I try in school but I have like a B- average, I play on the football and basketball team but I’m not the best player and there’s like one Guidance counselor for all three high schools in my area. Even if some scholarship program found me my family moves around so much that I’d probably miss anything in the mail, and all the scholarship sites I found on-line cost money to join. I’m angry all the time, this is bulls**t. I never got in trouble, I don’t do drugs, I never got or got anyone else pregnant but I’m f***ing stuck. I have to take some bulls**t job at 5 Guys in the strip mall where my chances of being promoted to manager are next to zero. Of course, I’m a poor Black 18 year old kid so I can’t contextualize any of this. You see, if I was a White kid with the same mediocre resume I could probably stumble my way into a local community college since my mom was a Gulf War vet. Or better yet if I was a rich educated White guy I could read some very basic statistics about how the skyrocketing costs of college mix with state cut-backs in high schools and community colleges are squeezing out average kids who just need a chance. Of course, I’m none of those things. I’m just a poor Black kid.
You see Gene, and Mr. Yang you don’t know the first damn thing about my life and you don’t care either. The only Black kids you think about are the future thugs and those “exceptional” Blind Side kids who are super smart, are great at sports or play some instrument like Stevie Wonder. You don’t have anything to say to us kids who did the best we could out of some bad neighborhoods and lousy families and our only crime is not being bad enough for Special Needs and not being Good enough to be your pet mentee. American domestic policy is targeted at making sure that White people who do just enough to get by end up being taken care of.
But Black folks?
Every statistic in this country since the Moynihan Report is telling me that I’m not going to make it and I’m just supposed to play super negro and it’ll all be better. And if I’m not successful it’s my fault. It couldn’t be those same institutions that you created to prop up White mediocrity routinely discriminate against Black mediocrity as well could it?
At least, if I were a Black PhD in political science who had the benefit of reading all of these reports, knowing public policy, history and having the writing skills and technological access to express my views online … that would be different. But I’m not any of those things. I’m just a poor Black kid who was cursed with being just ok. So all I really have to say to you is: Do you want fries with that?
Oh my god I love you. I work and rural broadband expansion, which is a lot more involved than just technology in infrastructure.
It actually has to do with adoption, choices choices choices …food or high speed internet electric or high speed internet water high speed internet…
I’m just a poor black kids and I can afford high speed internet my dad has to pay the utilities for us to “exist”.
you are an inspirational writer and I love reading your articles. this 1 is actually sad but it’s really true
For every excuse you make, I know real world examples of ‘poor black kids’ who have defied the odds. Quit making excuses for mediocrity. Gene confessed that making it out would be hard, but it is possible. Please stop the sarcasm and help push this community in the direction of progress and achievement.
I tweeted this to you too, Jason, but I just want to point out that the piece I wrote — a response to Gene Marks's article — was titled "If I Were a Rich White Dude" and offered advice to Forbes columnists, not black kids. It also made many of the same points you did above. E.g.: This kind of feels like friendly fire.
[...] I were a Poor Black Kid”, well the internet but the smack down on Mr. Genes and handed him his ass. None of what Genes said was particularly inspired and frankly much of it has been said before, [...]
His writing is superb. He will go far in life! God blessed you! Your writing will be your way out!!! Praise Jesus for he is worthy to be praised!!
No need to rethink the advice. What he said was right especially given the statistics that prove him so.
Is this the beginning of a morality play? Or is this the voice of Sybil?
[...] Excuse Me: I'm That Poor Black Kid Now the reality is that an African American job applicant with two years of college is 3 times less likely to get a job interview than a White applicant with a high school diploma. A statistic that has remained constant for almost 30 years, … Read more on Politic365 [...]
Sarcasm & continued excuses … nothing new with this "response" to truths started in original article. Winners do not blame others at every turn for their lot in life, whiners do… It's time we had that "conversation on race" that Eric "my people" Holder says we do not want to have! It's almost 2012 EOE / AA game has played out…whats that noise i hear off in the distance? uh oh – the sleeping giant is awake… and it's moving…
I don't think the critics on here have understood the thesis of this article. The author's not talking about the diamonds in the rough–the poor black kids who were fortunate enough to have been born with outrageously strong mental fortitude and/or smarts and/or athletic abilities (like, the top 1%). Those kids are going to be fine. They'll get out. And these are the kids the Forbes author was concentrating on. The author of this article is more talking about the middle 75%, the people who are just good enough. He's talking about poor black kids who can't magically screen out the violence, emotional corrosion, and familial disorder that haunts every single day of their lives. He's talking about the poor black kids who need outside help and role models to realize their full potential (not the built-in geniuses who can figure out a system all on their own). He's talking about the poor black kids who need functional schools and OK teachers. He's talking about the vast majority, and he's right. The system is geared to keep those people in perpetual poverty while most average white people with average intelligence and work ethic, in their middle class existence out in the suburbs, do OK. Not great, but OK, with an OK house and an OK car and an OK existence (with bills, but still OK). These average poor black kids are systematically excluded from just being OK. They're relegated to the bottom of the heap, through no fault of their own. This is what he is talking about. And this is what conservatives continually ignore, including the Forbes author. That is the shame of this country, and it should be pointed out.
Just taking your own life experience and applying it to the rest of the world doesnt work. Everyone learns and lives different. Sometimes I swear people dont read before they comment on things on-line. The brotha was writing in RESPONSE to another article. This was a very thoughtful and intelligent written piece. The only thing he missed is that our kids see more death than a lil bit. So many kids live in war zones. Then they have to cope with seeing their child hood friends or family with their brains splattered on the pavement from gun shots. I taught these kids, I know. Role models dont grow on trees.
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 cyberbitchslap2.blogspot.com
[...] Excuse Me: I'm That Poor Black Kid At least, if I were a Black PhD in political science who had the benefit of reading all of these reports, knowing public policy, history and having the writing skills and technological access to express my views online … that would be different. … Read more on Politic365 [...]
Stop blaming. if you had it hard.. work harder and make sure it doesn't happen with others in the future.
"Be the change you want to see in the world" – Mahatma Gandhi
There's some things I agree with and some things I don't. I'll be honest i'm an Upper-Middle Class Hispanic who got really lucky and is really smart, has tough parents (one of them being a teacher) and managed to use hard work and intelligence to get scholarships into a rigorous private school and a great state college in Florida (UCF). There's no way that if you're never given the chance nor had any opportunity that you can make anything of yourself, but also you have to see it from the other side of the wall. the "Rich White Kids" who i'll admit I've grown up with and gone to school with have no idea about you. Their world is completely separate from yours. just like you have no love for them they have no love for you. Don't expect their help, because I sure as hell never did. Also, i know education lately has gone down the tubes in the way it is organized but don't stereotype or blame the teachers. My mother has taught in the Miami area for most of her 28 years oh her career, mostly in disenfranchised and low-income and inner-city areas. She had anywhere from 25-35 students, all with their own needs and a limited budget and a restraining curriculum. I'm not saying they're all perfect but trust me they hate the budget cuts as much as you do and they want nothing more than to see kids reach their potential, even if it mean reducing their pay to that of less that a high school babysitter (which it already is). I personally believe hard work and determination can bring you out of anything, just like my grandparents who came here from Cuba and my parents who grew up in the streets of Miami working three jobs from age 15 till 25. there are people out there who care but you have to be realistic. in a time where everyone is just trying to stay afloat don't expect encouragement or support from others. Be your own drive and find personal success and financial success will come after. Be happy with what you have and work with it, because sometimes the smallest opportunities are the ones that add up.
USA Blacks have 85 IQ averages
Whites, 100
Eastern Asians 105
No amount of Cultural Marxist thinking can deny scientific fact.
Read Rushtons "Race, Evolution, and Behavior".
Blacks will never surpass Whites academically because of the IQ gap.
Racist? Yes. Scientific fact? A resounding YES.
The race card has a limited lifetime before people see through the facade. Science can never be worn out.
This was a very interesting and a sad reality for many "Poor Black Kids" in America. There is another factor Violence. So, when all these parts are put together which are: poverty, bad teachers, horrible school system, unemployed parent/unemplyed parents, homelessness, food desert, grandparents raising grandchildren, no-medical coverage, struggling veteran, and violence; this child is to do Great in school. We now expect a child to understand and fuction with no problems in their life with all of that to deal with everyday. This is not a realistic view whatsoever!!! We need to understand that no child is a Throw-Away-Child. We need to start a NEW WAR ON POVERTY and set NEW STANDARDS FOR SCHOOL SYSTEMS. It will benefit all of our citizens, especially the CHILDREN. We need to have COMPASSION FOR THE CHILDREN because they are our FUTURE.