"If I Were a Poor Black Kid"

In Forbes, Gene Marks recently wrote an article titled "If I Were a Poor Black Kid".  Marks asserts that "...the biggest [racial] challenge we face isn’t inequality.   It’s ignorance.  So many kids from West Philadelphia don’t even know these opportunities exist for them."  It is an optimistic viewpoint that any impoverished black kid in a city is capable of succeeding, that  opportunities are still available despite their lack of wealth and the color of their skin.  Marks goes further to give examples of the opportunities and thus embellishes his argument.  Though I myself am a typical wealthy north shore white male, I absolutely agree with Marks' assertions.  I have faith in the American dream, and I believe anybody can achieve it with the right mindset and work ethic.  It's the beauty of our individualistic country; work hard, and you will be rewarded, regardless of your background or what you look like.  I mean, Oprah Winfrey was born into poverty and with hard work, look where she ended up.  We have a black president.  There are countless examples of apparently oppressed blacks that rise to success.  It's never easy for these people, don't get me wrong; if you start out in poverty, it's much more difficult to prosper.  But it is possible; the opportunity exists whether you're black, white, asian, indian, et cetera.


There are a lot of people out there that would say Marks is clueless because he isn't a poor black kid but rather a middle class white man, which is a totally valid claim.  I think that Marks may be exaggerating some of his many listed opportunities.  However, that does not mean that all of these opportunities are nonexistent.  There is simply no way.  And surely Marks must have done some field work or research before writing this article.  On the Time website, Touré blasted Marks' article and one of his arguments is, "If I were a middle class man writing about a poor black kid I would assume that anyone who knows the world in the way that I do would make the decisions that I would make so I need only share with them the knowledge that I have. I wouldn’t think about how their environment might impact their ability or willingness to use that information. I mean, everyone has access to the Internet, right?"  Actually, yes.  It's called the public library.  There are computers in virtually every library available for use, AND they have Internet.  Yeah, I will never know what it's like to live in the shoes of a poor black kid, but the opportunity for success is there.