What I'm reading today about "Poor, black kids" and "life's unfairness"

This picture was taken in 1936 and shows poor black children in Mississippi in the midst of the Great Depression. Sometimes I wonder if these people had is worse, or people today living in inner city slums. The children were probably born around 1930, so they well could still be alive today. You really wish you could hear their story, and know how things turned out for them.

Listen up poor black children! A rich white man has some advice for you.

I am not a poor black kid. I am a middle aged white guy who comes from a middle class white background. So life was easier for me. But that doesn’t mean that the prospects are impossible for those kids from the inner city. It doesn’t mean that there are no opportunities for them. Or that the 1% control the world and the rest of us have to fight over the scraps left behind. I don’t believe that. I believe that everyone in this country has a chance to succeed. Still. In 2011. Even a poor black kid in West Philadelphia.

It takes brains. It takes hard work. It takes a little luck. And a little help from others. It takes the ability and the know-how to use the resources that are available. Like technology. As a person who sells and has worked with technology all my life I also know this..."

But, but, You're Not A Poor, Black Kid Gene Marks, and you never will be.
Gene Marks, perhaps you shouldn't assume what you would do if you were this or that. Not even when you think you know the entire situation. Knowing the ins and outs about something doesn't give you permission to opine about what you'd do if you were in someone else's shoes. But plenty of people have already told you about that. So do us all a favor and knock it off.

If I were a rich white dude, I’d use the free technology available to immerse myself in the reality of American society with a huge gap between rich and poor — a gap that in most cases has white dudes and black kids on opposite sides, and getting farther apart every day. I'd spend hours on Inequality.org, a website launched by the progressive Institute for Policy Studies that put a lot of information about this gap thing in one place.

There are way too many other factors working against these poor black children:
Easy access to guns. (Thank the NRA)
Easy access to bad influences. (Thank some of these record companies out here and BET television)
A lack of proper role models and stable home life. (Thank some of these Mick Jagger type daddies running around.)
Poor schools. (Thank phony ass politricksters (black and white) and bureaucrats who line their pockets instead of looking out for the welfare of the children that they are charged to serve.)

The deck is stacked against many of these kids from the jump, but they can overcome these obstacles. It just won't be easy. And an article from a rich white man in a business magazine won't make it any easier.

Rich White folks and the miseducation of poor black folks thanks to Bill and Melinda Gates. In the war being fought over the very survival of public education, the privatizers are forging the future. Is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation aiding and abetting them?

Why we need more people of color in education recent report from the Center for American Progress, “Teacher Diversity Matters,” highlights the wide gaps in diversity between students and teachers across the nation. Past research shows that students of color enjoy greater rates of academic success when they are taught by teachers of color, which makes it increasingly important for us to fix the teacher workforce’s low diversity as our demography evolves.

The U.S. Can't Survive With a Stubbornly Low Level of Intelligence Animating the Political Process which is why our political landscape continues to be dominated by people who have been wrong about everything for years."

Go back to sleep, everything is fine with the Huntsville City Schools. Life is unfair if you're black and poor.

Snark