I read Jakada Imani’s piece and found that he made great points. I love that you found a post from someone in Oakland (Bay Area pride!), and from the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights – an org doing such great work for my home community. Thanks again, Jeff!

I found another compelling critique of Marks’ original article by Jakada Imani, once a poor black kid himself (article URL at bottom). Imani points out that the whole of Mark’s article rests on the core advice that disadvantaged youth “become the exception to the rule” instead of  addressing and suggesting solutions to improve “the rules themselves”. As long as we ignore the realities of others (i.e. assuming that poverty is simply an intersection of low wealth and high ignorance) and refuse to acknowledge the role for the greater society to play in decreasing the disadvantages that both cause and are caused by poverty (i.e. lack of affordable housing and health care, lack of educational and psychological support in and out of school, free time to study due to the economic needs of families–I could go on, I used to be a guidance counselor and saw these things literally every day–) we will never have meaningful dialogue about poverty in America.

Thanks, Cady, for continuing this discussion, and Mr. Marks for spurring it.

http://www.ellabakercenter.org/blog/2011/12/i-was-a-poor-black-kid/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Ellasvoice+%28Ella%27s+Voice+-+Ella+Baker+Center%27s+Blog%29