Forbes "If I Were a Poor Black Kid"--A Poor Black Kid's Response

[warbread]

Next month, Mr. Marks tells women how to make more money in the work place.

[4695024]

stupid poor black people

[simplesimonme2]

So, If I am to understand you correctly you are saying that the education in the inner cities is sub-par. Yet we know the government spends close to 20,000.00 a child on education in these I'm sure you would agree then that the solution would be school choice. Taking that same money and instead of giving to an ineffective school system give it to the people who care the most the parents and let them choose what school is right for their child. FIr 20k a great education could be had

[pronumeral1446]

Why would anyone use Wikipedia as a source when they can just scroll down and use the sources Wikipedia gives you?

[pronumeral1446]

That's a pretty good webcam and an nice looking outfit for a "poor" black kid.

That being said, everything she says is correct.

[ArrogantAmerican333]

Some of your criticisms are valid but...

I'm sure the article writer knew you're not supposed to use wikipedia DIRECTLY as a source. Wikipedia, however, is a great source for sources, because the articles themselves cite sources from which they get their facts. It's a starting point from which I've done all my research on all my paper, so yes you damn well can pass college using Wikipedia.

(cont.)

[ArrogantAmerican333]

@ArrogantAmerican333

I attend a Public Ivy college with a 3.2 GPA and I have never ever used any fancy software in my life to help me study, so I don’t see why Skype and all that is really relevant. I use and always have used the same tools everyone with an internet connection has. I have never used anything more fancy than google unless specifically required to.

(cont.)

[ArrogantAmerican333]

@ArrogantAmerican333

And lack of funding isn’t what’s hurting those schools. Funding towards education has more than doubled since the 1970s but graduation rates and test scores are still pretty much the same. The problem is teacher’s unions that make it nigh impossible to provide teachers with any incentive not to be crappy. It’s become REALLY hard to fire public school teachers or decrease their pay for sucking.

(cont.)

[ArrogantAmerican333]

@ArrogantAmerican333

And since the schools are public, there is no competitive insentive for them to NOT suck. After all, kids aren't going to take their money and go somewhere else because A) they aren't paying in the first place and B) they are assigned a single school and cannot chose to go elsewhere.

[georgeetiorbo]

I'm viewer 666!

[justinean]

You are awesome and I love this video!

[smoothiefreak]

@justinean thanks!

[HoneyImHome367]

Can you make more like this, please!!

[smoothiefreak]

@HoneyImHome367 absolutely! I'm always accepting suggestions.

[CyberSpaceman81]

@smoothiefreak It applies to mainly poor black kids and other current minorities because there is a unique deficit in the expected amount of personal effort toward even the simple things that could be done personally to raise their own chances of success. With the Liberal intercity public education systems record of mass failures and dropouts, it is hypocrisy for Liberals to hate on calls for even the littlest of personal effort. They don't educate well, then excuses complacency.

[CyberSpaceman81]

@smoothiefreak It is so decayed and insincere to fight so hard to excuse people remaining so non self initiated in life that they can't even be expected to do the simple little things that Gene Marks wrote of to improve ones chances, all under excuses of feeling totally hopeless and being a perpetual victim. Especially when the biggest victimization is the Liberals failure in producing any good intercity education results that would empower people with greater PERSONAL abilities

[OrangeSaint420]

except your obviously not poor.

[smoothiefreak]

@OrangeSaint420 based on what? I grew up with 3 brothers and sisters and a single mom. My oldest sister went to Stanford while my mother was simultaneously working two jobs and finishing her degree. I got my degree from Berea College that caters to advanced students from low-income families. Please tell me how I can't relate to being poor.

[OrangeSaint420]

@smoothiefreak

low income doesnt mean poor. i know real poor people like single moms who sit around with no job spending all their money on meth n shit, if their kids wanna eat they have to get food themself. a lot of the time the kids have to find their own place to live cause their mom is just couch hopping. also i based it on your comforter and your bed and your clothes and what not and that you have a computer/camera/internet

[smoothiefreak]

@OrangeSaint420 i am 22 and a marketing director now. the point of my video was that you can succeed in america coming from being a poor black kid, but his advice is stupid. and low income is EXACTLY what poor means.

[Black123Beard]

I'd personally prefer to sit at home and eat KFC wraps and watch "Friends" or "Two and a Half Men"! Lol.

[TheRisky88]

there are a whole bunch of problems with this article, but the main one is that even if it did work for a couple "poor black kids", it doesn't work on a systemic level. it doesn't help poor kids as a whole, or give them any sort of equal opportunity, or increase their access to better education. you have to be an outlier to make it.

also, the title implies that only poor black kids aren't being successful, the poor white kids are doing just fine in pulling themselves up by the bootstrapts

[DreamChasing]

Wikipedia is a great resource. You can't reference Wikipedia articles (for obvious reasons), but they make a great base of information from which you can search for respectable articles.

[scoopmaster23]

Fantastic! You're black, beautiful, highly intelligent, articulate, insightful, fluent and fairminded. I'm a 60-year-old freckled, pasty white paraplegic former newspaper reporter. My red-headed daughter suffers from ginger-discrimination because of her whiter skin. Keep up the good word. Hope you don't insulted when I say you are good to look at, too.

[avoirpleindefric]

He may as well have called this article "Let Them Eat Cake" as that would have been a more fitting title. It's ironic how his intent was to communicate what he would do as a poor black kid yet doesn't put himself in an actual poor black kid's shoes.

[Frances3654]

damn straight

[smoothiefreak]

@thenewmike2012 I don't feel like that is a valid argument. I mean, okay, if they dress like that, don't give them a job, but maybe address the media that pushes the image of hard gangsta black people because it's profitable. Who owns BET? Did you know it's a white guy? Poverty, poor education systems, accumulated privilege--these are all real things. I don't know that their fashion choices are really up for debate.

[starree055]

@spreadingthemuse Wow! You're in a position to tell people how to react or respond to what they read or see? Your reaction to her response can just as easily be labeled "juvenile, uncalled for, and inappropriate". Perhaps you're confusing anger with frustration and passion. If Gene Marks were really trying to give advice to "poor black kids" maybe he should have contributed these gems to a black publication or he should take his advice on the road to "poor black communities" in person.

[jjamerican93]

Scary thing is that people in power have a similar mentality towards less powerful individuals across society.

[onthinice766]

brilliant argument

[SpreadingtheMuse]

I read both the article and the real black kids response, and the black kid screwed up royally.

At no time did the white guy say black kids need his help

At no time did the white guy say black kids never would have thought of his ideas

At no time did the white guy say he was so much smarter. In fact he bent over backwards to say exactly the opposite

Meanwhile the black kid let his anger get the better of him and lashed out like, a kid. The anger was juvenile, uncalled for, and inappropiate

[wittenberg5]

(2nd post)I think its great that you worked hard and are very successful. You are clearly very smart. But something is wrong with our culture. Smart black kids are harrassed for acting white. The ability to throw a basketball is lauded far more than the ability to calculate its trajectory. That is the fundamental problem. The average black kid, knowing this, does not put forth the same effort in school as an asian or jew. FACT. Until we do, we shouldnt whine about "the system". Peace.

[wittenberg5]

(1st post) Lol sweetheart, you werent a slave. The fact that our ancestors had it tough has NOTHING to do with YOUR SAT scores! The reason we dont do as well as them is because we do not work as hard them, pure and simple. A study was done in which they had a group of 7 year old asian kids try to solve a math problem that was too hard for them, vs 7 year old american kids. The americans gave up after 30 secs, the asians kept at it until the test was taken away from them, by force, 15 min later.

[srecinto]

Amen Smoothie, I grew up on the west side of Chicago and it is clear that Gene Marks has no clue knowing what it is like growing up in a poor neighborhood, and while I agree with some of his generic points, I think it is pompous and ignorant of him to assume that its the "Poor black kid" that is not working hard enough to become successful. He should stick to writing what he knows about, not what he thinks he knows about. Great vid

[lanananans]

great video.i checked ur channel to see if u have more rants of this nature but i see rapping,halloween,accents....d­ont get me wrong,im not telling u how to run ur channel,i just personally would like to see more commentary vids on relevant things becuse i think you are very good at it.i dont check ppls channels so often and i did check yours cause i was amazed by this video.have a nice day!

[smoothiefreak]

@lanananans I know, I'm still deciding what kind of youtube channel I want to have. I have a strong background in social issues and broadcasting, but also in improv and performance so I am kind of deciding if I should just have two channels?

[lanananans]

@smoothiefreak definatly! my vote goes for your "brain masturbation" on the topics you mentioned! and you can find a lot of good smaller channels to watch,exchange ideas,improve your views etc.i like youtube because i enjoy watching debates i dont get to see much in real life-religion,social matters,politics,race and so on.im gonna sub to you and i cheer for you to have more awesome rants on this or other channel.dont waste ur potential :)

[reignofcrimson]

@smoothiefreak trust me, its easier

[JohnKuro]

@smoothiefreak

Why not do both in one channel? I personally like diversity. Also, why can't you be socially vocal and funny at the same time? You can, you have a radiant personality and people will watch your videos because they want to know how you feel on a certain subject.

[wittenberg5]

oh and one more thing. read the chinese in america by iris chang. when asians first came here in the 19th century they were every bit as hated as we were. so what happened? they worked 16 to18 hours a day so they could save enough money to send there kids to college. now they dominate the ivies and make more $ than whites. look at the jews. persecuted for CENTURIES. today they 0.5% of the world pop but 20% of the forbes 400 and 30% of nobel prize winners. no more freaking excuses !

[smoothiefreak]

@wittenberg5 Well "one more thing" doesn't work since you obviously just copy and pasted this response. Doesn't work. You see, if you've ever taken any courses about people of a diaspora, you'd know that their lack of ability to preserve their culture (ESPECIALLY in a place that routinely dismisses them as being "other" or "less than") sets them up for failure time and again, because they work simply to survive and not to beat the unbearable odds. So, educate yourself, and STFU RACIST.

[wittenberg5]

@smoothiefreak no i didnt copy and paste lol, i said one more thing because i posted something earlier on here. go look. anywho my dad, a stanford mba who makes 1/4 of a million every year, grew up as one of those poor black kids, but that was in the deep south during the 50s. because he isnt a whiner he studied constantly and became a national merit scholar. the rest is history. iam not a racist, i am black and i love malcolmx. i just wonder when we will GET TO WORK.

[smoothiefreak]

@wittenberg5 The issue isn't that all black people are lazy and not "getting to work." the issue is that inherently they have to work harder to get just as far. Look, I'm personally successful, my sister went to Stanford, then UVA, and is balling out of control, that's completely aside the point of his article though, so your comment is moot.

[wittenberg5]

@smoothiefreak Well first of all kudos to your sister. However, the rest of what you said simply isnt true. Blacks do not have it harder than other races, we have all kinds of AA programs that are designed to help us get into college. A black kid with a 180 psat will become a national achievement scholar. An asian needs a 210 or higher to get the same funding. So why, to return to my original question, are asians doing better in spite of this fact? Are they smarter or harder working. ur pick

[smoothiefreak]

@wittenberg5 They (1) get to preserve their culture in that they weren't enslaved and mixed with other tribes and didn't subsequently have their family units disbanded and then had to work for their slave masters even after slavery in a country with its roots deeply embedded in racism and (2) don't usually have to deal with the harsh realities of poverty. Please educate yourself on diasporic peoples and race in america. AA doesn't solve the issue of racism, and implying such is naive.

[smoothiefreak]

@wittenberg5 My final reply, so you can keep talking if you'd like. I graduated high school at 15, got my degree, and am working as a marketing director at 22. I busted my ass. I busted my ass more than all of my white friends, guaranteed. My success will always be hindered by my name and skin color, if you don't want to believe that's the case, I await the day you go through the same challenges. Oh, and thank your dad, not everyone is so lucky to have people to push them towards success.

[futurestoryteller]

Your obvious amusement over the content of the article is infectious. I will say that I'm under the impression that Wikipedia is more useful than people give it credit for, but I only read the articles for fun so... - what do I know? I remember the large number of projects they gave me in school that required a computer, I never did them, because I knew a small portion of my class could get on theirs at home, and finish it at their leisure. But I'd have to race against the clock. So... screw it.

[avoirpleindefric]

You're right. A SYSTEMATIC change is necessary to achieve true academic opportunity for these kids. The inequality here lies with the ideology that only the exceptional of one class have the ability to move up while the majority of another class already have resources available to them to succeed.

[willquestion]

I agree with you completely. I hope the editor of Forbes gets a good chewing out for letting that article see daylight.

[kidwhocracked]

Yaaaa, the guy who wrote this is an idiot.

[theHedgex1]

backlash? no need for that cause the guy didn't do his research, just placing in writing what he asumed to be true. he is just furthest from the truth even if he didn't mean it to sound so bad

[stonethugmusic]

NICE JOB CUTIE "

[Cabochon1360]

I think Gene Marks means well. And, sure, it makes sense for any poor kid, white or black, to get as much education as he can. But that's got nothing to do with the fact that as a society, we should use the instrument of government to give every single kid access to a good school and the ability to go to college; and we're failing at that. Anyway ... good video. (I'm a middle-aged white man myself, but maybe not quite as clueless as Gene Marks.)

[avoirpleindefric]

Great video, I agree with you on all points and would have something more eloquent to say but I already spent my energy commenting on other videos discussing this article, so all I really have to say now is, you're really cute :)

[smoothiefreak]

@avoirpleindefric hahahaha, well I appreciate it! The article really tried to simplify gigantic issues with small changes, and it was just pissed me off! haha

[MonkeyRitsu]

Black kids don't have to work three times as hard...it is so much easier for black people to get into college. Now, Asians on the other hand, that is another story.

[thetanyawearsprada]

@MonkeyRitsu totally, poor asians lol.

[thelostgirl007]

i don't know anyone who uses skype to study, even if it does work...wtf

[smoothiefreak]

@thelostgirl007 seriously, like, why wouldn't you meet up with your classmates? wouldn't that make way more sense if they are taking the same courses?