Yet Another Installment of WUT I DON'T EVEN

[filkertom]

"If I were a poor black kid..."

Comments

[wednes]

I happened upon this yesterday and was beyond appalled.

If he were a poor black kid, he'd probably get his ass kicked for spouting such bullshit.

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

I really think that opining on if "I were a poor black kid" or poor anybody, coming from a middle-age, middle class white man is not to be taken too seriously.

The author likely meant well, but it still sounds bad.

Besides what if that poor, black kid has a learning disability or just doesn't do well in certain classes. You can try and try and try and still fail sometimes.

I agree that opportunity is there, and that anyone can become a success, but it takes more than just trying really hard and wanting it baddly enough.

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

The author, I suspect, did not mean well at all.

He is writing for Forbes. The percentage of poor children of any ethnicity reading Forbes is...slim to none. He is a rich, white guy writing to other rich, white guys to reassure them that the conditions of children in poverty and children struggling against systemic oppression are not their fault, because if those children deserved to succeed, all they had to do was work hard. Like the Forbes readers did. Even the ones whose fortunes largely came from inherited money, influence, and opportunities.

He 'meant well' in exactly the same way a person saying "Get a job" 'meant well' when passing by a homeless person on the street.

Let's not give this guy any more credit than he deserves.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

The irony is that, the headline notwithstanding, the author of this arrogant, condescending, clueless essay about how all you need to do to escape the ghetto is work hard in school consistently wrote "If I was...". Which shows he doesn't really value education enough to learn proper grammar.

[batyatoon]

Yeah, I noticed that too.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Well, hey, if I had an IQ of 90, I'd study hard, make myself real smart by readin' lotsa books I don't understand and one day I'd make money writing stupid articles for Forbes. Or become a republican presidental candidate.

[pandoradeloeste.livejournal.com]

And here I was just thinking "I haven't hit my quota of 'splaining today". Thanks ever so. (By which I mean, gross.)

[alverant.livejournal.com]

This could almost a political song sung to the tune of "If I were a Rich Man".

Seriously though, this is a total lack of understanding of how things are for others. I hate it when people say that all it takes is hard work to get rich. It's bullshit. Always has been. Always will be. You can work hard, sacrifice friends and family, your health, all for the sake of a job and still fail. I'm convinced that getting rich is largely a matter of luck and a willingness to exploit others. Granted there are exceptions, but when it comes to business climbing up the ladder means stepping on everyone below you.

Getting rich from your own hard work is a rarity. Getting rich from other people's hard work is too common. People shouldn't use their own life stories as a yard stick to measure others. A Ferengi rule of Acquisition says you shouldn't confuse luck with divine intervention. I say when it comes to success, don't forget to include luck in your explanation.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

The American Dream mythology has no place in it for either luck or privilege. Being in the right place at the right time, knowing the right person, getting cut a break because you look and sound like the sort of person who gets cut breaks... none of that is factored in at all.

This is also part of what drives the vanity-publishing industry. If you can achieve anything by working hard enough, and you've worked your heart out on writing the Great American Novel, and you still can't find a publisher... well, obviously it must be someone else's fault, because you've worked hard! And there's always a predator out looking for people like that.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Why didn't such a predator take out that ijjiot Forbes guy before he had a chance to annoy all the rest of us??

Just to wind you up more....

[alverant.livejournal.com]

The author and Sen. Rod Johnson sound like they'll get along well.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/13/sen-ron-johnson-good-workers-dont-make-minimum-wage/

[kengr]

Alas, it's an article of faith (literally faith) that luck plays little or no part in things like getting jobs.

Even being white and middle class, getting jobs is more a matter of luck than anything else unless you are both overwhelmingly qualified and the person you apply to/interview with happens to like you.

Hell, these idiots don't even consider that the number of job openings for anything but really skilled jobs is less than a tenth of the folks trying to get jobs.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

In that case it's called "persistence". Persistence just means you keep working at it until you succeed. Success in this case can be a matter of work or of luck. Your interview skills can improve with each interview, but your job set skills don't really improve until you actually work (yes, you can teach yourself skills but employers are far more interested in the skills you're paid to hone).

I think people aren't really willing to admit the role luck plays. Whenever a person is told their friend is having an interview or looking for work they say something like "good luck". It's become a hollow phrase but it's also a confession that sometimes skills just aren't enough to get an offer. I know in my own job hunt it's a matter of luck. I have to keep looking, keep trying, and eventually I will get lucky and find a place that wants to give me money for work. It's like a contest. Winning is a matter of luck, but you still have to do the work to enter.

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

For me, the phrase "good luck" means "I know there are plenty of factors I cannot influence, because they're up to you, so here's my attempt to influence the factors that nobody knows what influences them, just in case." :)

[kengr]

Persistence doesn't really enter into it.

My point was that if there are X jobs, and 5X people who need jobs *no* amount of "hard work", "persistence" or anything else are going to get 4X of the job seekers jobs.

And that's pretty much the situation we have. Unless you are talking highly skilled jobs, there just plain aren't enough jobs to go around.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

All I could think was.... so, all this studying and applying and meeting with counselors and interviewing and learning software stuff - are you supposed to do it before or after you finish your after-school job, pick up your younger sibs from school and get them home safely, do all your chores, and make dinner for the family because your parents are either too busy at *their* jobs or too incompetent to bother?

There's more to it than just being stupid or uninformed.

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded, of course, of Dickens:
"Oh, to hear the insect on the leaf pronouncing on the 'too much life' among his hungry brethren in the dust!"

[violinsontv.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'd set it to the tune of: "If I/Were thuh King/of the Foreeeeeeeeeeeeeeest....."

[tcgtrf.livejournal.com]

I was a very poor (as in hungry at bedtime a lot) rural white kid.

I look back at my life from sixty and realize that all of the twists and turns that resulted in my jobs and types of work were the result of luck--even one little factor being changed would have thrown things down a different road.

I'm satisfied that things worked out well, but I also realize that things could have ended up either much, much better or considerably worse, depending on the exact sequence of events.

On the other hand, I think that quick, critical thinking during the hiring process is an important factor that can throw things in your favor. Over the course of my careers, I hired over a thousand different people for jobs. It was their ability to answer difficult (surprisingly so) questions well that sealed the deal.

Prior to this, though, is the first impression. Most of the time, your interviewer will decide in the first fifteen seconds whether or not they'll hire you and it will be based on body language working at the primate level. I'm sure there's youtube videos out there that could show those jobseekers among you how to use this to your advantage. (Not saying this is right or wrong, mainly saying that this is the way it is--it won't change in time to make a difference to you.)

Tom Trumpinski

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Neil deGrasse Tyson tells a similar story to the author's story about math class. He decided when he was nine years old that he wanted to be an astrophysicist. At every turn from elementary school through college, regardless whether the authorities were white or black, he had to fight to get into the tougher classes that would allow him to reach his goals. He says they actually asked him things like "wouldn't you rather play basketball?"

And as he says, when he finally got there, when he got his doctorate, he turned around, and there was nobody following him.