Gene Marks
Last night, F$%k It List posted an article, “If I Was A Poor Black Kid” to her Facebook page that caused quite the uproar amongst some of her friends. Apparently, while I was resting yesterday, all of Twitter circulated the column by Gene Marks that all but blamed poor black children for not doing better in school and subsequently life. I read the column – twice – and I have to say I chuckled a little bit.
Being a poor black kid is in no way, shape or form laughable. I laughed because Marks gave such a well-thought out strategy for these poor black children that simply will not work. I know this because I was one of these poor black kids. While y’all know Smarty as a very Southern woman, I spent most of my childhood living in the projects of a very poor, very rural town in North Carolina. Looking back on my childhood, I just don’t know how my mother did it. My mother worked – hard. Hell, the only time I’ve ever known my mom to only have one job has been in the past 10 years when her health simply wouldn’t allow it.
Just like now, the projects are government subsidized housing located in bad neighborhoods, filled with poor people. Folks who have, somewhere in life, been failed by a system that they have/do pay into to in some way make their conditions better. These communities are filled with the drug/alcohol addicted, chronically ill (both physically and mentally), uneducated and underemployed people who have either been forgotten or disregarded.
I remember having Medicaid if we had health insurance at all. If times got too tough, we had to have food stamps so we could eat. I remember the government issued peanut butter with the oil on top that you had to stir up that never tasted quite right. And I remember that big block of cheese that made the best grilled cheese sandwiches and macaroni and cheese I’ve ever eaten. I also remember some utilities like our telephone or cable being cut off for a bit if they were deemed as “not a necessity.” And even with this, my siblings and I were a lot better off than some of our counterparts. In today’s society, these kids have a lot more to contend with than just some funky-tasting peanut butter.
Some of these kids are faced with caring for ill/drug addicted parents, younger siblings, going to school with empty bellies and walking through the equivalent of a war zone. Other kids are fighting learning disabilities while trying to receive help with school work from parents who never quite grasped an understanding of the work themselves. Some are even holding down jobs to help their families make the ends meet. And all on top of all this, they have to go to school and live in a world where folks like Mr. Marks offer up overly simplistic solutions like, “read more” and “learn technology.”
Well, Mr. Marks, I’d say it’s hard for you to read or plug up one of these “free” computers with no electricity. Even if there were electricity, how is it possible for a child to take advantage of all these wonderful websites without a decent internet connection? Internet, cable and a lot of other things are deemed luxury items when you live in the poor house. And I could be wrong, but I know I’m not, it is probably harder to learn anything when your stomach is growling and in pain from the lack of sufficient sustenance.
Eight years ago today, I became my family’s first college graduate. I got good grades in a high school that was just as poor as the area around it. I did earn a full academic scholarship to college and no I was not ready for it but I did my coursework and graduated early – with honors. I did all that in spite of the hand I was dealt. It was done without access to technology and a decent library. I didn’t get a computer until my sophomore years in college and the library in my hometown was only open six hours a week.
Yes, I did build excellent relationships with people who constantly encouraged me to do better and be better. Yes, I did go above and beyond with my school work at times. And yes, I did read a lot and teach myself all I could about technology but I had people pushing me to do this. My last year of college, I also worked five jobs and carried 16 credit hours. I had a drive within me that made me work hard to not allow my circumstances to dictate my life’s outcome.
Here’s a newsflash for all the Gene Markses in the world, not every poor black kid has what I had. Not every poor black kid has an educator who will take the time to see in them what they can’t see in themselves. Not every poor black kid has the support of parents who push them to be better than they were. Not every poor black kid will get up after they’ve been knocked down by life at an early age. The problem here is not simply lazy black kids who don’t read or learn about technology, it is self-righteous, know-it-alls who have the “blame the victim” mentality about the problems that plague not only poor black kids, but poor kids everywhere.
Being a poor kid of any race is a disgrace to humanity. The fact that Marks has zeroed in on poor black kids with his “solutions” and hypothetical scenarios from his white, middle-aged and middle class point of view is both bigoted and offensive. So, I say on behalf of all poor black kids everywhere who have climbed out or who are still climbing, keep your sorry, ill-researched and asinine solutions and opinions within the confines of your water cooler, cocktail/dinner party conversations until you grow balls big enough to live and walk a week in the shoes of these children. We have enough to contend with without you deflecting attention away from how you, your peer group and the politicians you’ve elected have dropped the ball on things like education and welfare reform.
If I was a middle-aged, middle class, white man, I’d be going into some of these communities helping some of these kids learn to read and giving them access to all this “free technology.” *walks away mumbling* O_o
