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From Rags To…Umm…
Is the “American Dreamâ„¢” a sham? No. But a new study demonstrates that, if you’re poor and black, it certainly seems like it is.
7 Responses to “From Rags To…Umm…”
does the link work?
let me put in my two cents up front.
Few years ago, my niece changed her name (from Lakisha to Lee) and her address (she used mine) on her resume in order to get a response. Those are the ONLY two items she changed on her resume. she’d mailed out who knows how many but as soon as she changed her name and used my address she started getting calls. She’s working now. She’s a high school grad, goes to community college part time.
Was her address in a bad neighborhood: YES
but it’s where her mother and father could afford to live. and they couldn’t afford to move is what it was.
Now, that’s the America I live in.
You always link to the same site..
That’s because it’s his blog: donkelephant. Check the guest blogger list to the left, it has everyones sites that posts to TMV, all are great.
…but actually the link is broken on TMV post in the article here… so….
I am the descendant of slaves who worked this country’s land to build it into what it is today. We have been tracing our family’s history (nine generations in USA, with a DNA test link that 100% matches me to three neighboring tribes in modern-day northern Cameroon / western Chad / eastern Nigeria). Yet after the Civil War, my great-great-great grandparents – who had been born slaves and were dirt poor – were able to help my great-great-grandfather (born free, during the Civil War) scrounge together some money from relatives to get “book learnin’” at Rust College in Mississippi. My great-great-grandfather also worked on white folks’ land to pay the remainder of his education. He graduated, and later taught at said school.
If my relatives could do that during the Jim Crow era (and there were other relatives who scrounged together meager funds to send folks to medical school….in the late 1800s!), when things were overwhelming stacked against black folks then I don’t wanna hear today’s folks complain.
My family has gone from illiterate slave / sharecropper to mostly middle-class in a few generations. If one remains poor in today’s America – regardless of race – it is because you have (1) dropped out of high school; (2) had children out of wedlock (a sure-fire way to increase one’s poverty, especially if one is female); (3) not stayed out of jail or prison; (4) lack a good work ethic; and/or (4) lack a good work ethic.
I agree Shay, but this isn’t an either or situation here because both facts –racism and lazy people — exist in reality. And if we going to talk; let’s talk in reality not in either/or, black/white (no pun entended) theories: Lazy people use racism as an excuse; and good productive people are sometimes mistreated because of racism. Both occur and we know this.
And don’t forget about class-ism. I’m a janitor and trust me class-ism is real. I been treated worse by blacks than some whites because I push a broom for a living. You’d be amazed how some people (black and white) treat me and talk to me when i’m at work. And I can say honestly over the years the way I’m treated by black has gone down. But that’s another subject. But it’s worth remember when you say stay out of jail. I know plenty who been in jail did their time but can’t catch a break now. Can’t even get a job working with me. people write them off and think they don’t deserve no chance to make a honest living. I know plenty working hard tying to make an honest living who can’t catch a break.
Fix the link please!
Here’s the link to the original post.