If I was a poor Black kid I'd start working on the following immediately so that I could grow up and be a successful, productive, and tax paying member of society with 1.2 kids and 2.2 pets in a house with a white picket fence that the bank will own for the next 30 years:
1) I'd stop worrying about where my next meal was coming from and focus on getting good grades. That should be my only concern...
2) I'd ignore the gunshots outside my window and pay closer attention to my Skype study group. If I use headphones, I can barely hear the gunfire anyway...
3) I'd avoid the drug dealers on the school bus by walking to and from school everyday. Each way will take about an hour, but it's good exercise and will give me time to listen to audio book versions of classic literature such as Melville's Moby Dick.
4) I'd tell my grandmother to forget out getting her insulin because we need to buy a new computer.
5) I'd ask my mom why she can't just add Internet service to our phone plan. We have to have a phone anyway so that she can call 911 whenever my dad comes over and tries to steal her check on payday.
6) I wouldn't worry about trying to sleep at night. I need to be learning from Academic Earth, TED, Khan Academy, Wikipedia, Project Gutenberg, and the CIA World Factbook.. Besides, I'm awake most nights anyway trying to keep the rats off of my bed...
7) I wouldn't think about the kids living two miles away from me born with a skin color that makes realizing opportunity easy...
8) I wouldn't get discouraged if I tried my hardest and still failed. This just means that I don't want success enough and that I'm not really trying as hard as I can. It has nothing to do with a system built with actual barriers to my success. Excuse me, I need to go listen the Moby Dick again; that will help...
10) I would stop being poor and black. Obviously, that hasn't gotten me very far in life...
And I guess I better learn how to count too...
I like the one about learning to count lol!
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