I understand the impulse to believe that anything can be over-come if you just work hard enough. And the belief that this is a one-size-fits-all solution, no matter who you are, what your situation is and what you can physically handle. But the dirty open secret is that many don’t work hard at all to get what they want, and what we’re really talking about is fairness and creating a level playing field in a society where the breaks and rewards are afforded to a select few, and everyone else must navigate an elaborate system where class mobility is more American “dream” than American “reality.”
Americans work longer hours and for fewer benefits than most in the Western, “First World” countries, all under the belief that hard work will be rewarded. But hard work often isn’t rewarded. Unless you believe that reward is “in heaven.”
But if you point out the inherent unfairness in our system as a problem and not just the divine hand of the free market at work, you’re labeled as some sort of Communist deserving of a Congressional Inquisition.
Telling someone they need to be exceptional to get out of an exceptionally bad situation isn’t new advice. It’s a tale as old as the Dickens novel “Great Expectations.” But even poor, beat down Pip had the help of a mysterious benefactor, secretly guiding his path out of poverty and parentlessness.
What do you get when even a calvary of one isn’t coming to save you?
”- Poor Black Kids Need To Learn To Read, Use Diigo Sez White Dude In Forbes - The Snob Blog - Danielle Belton’s The Black Snob (via greaterthanlapsed)