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PhillyMag, Makin’ Lemons Out Of “If I Was A Poor Black Kid” Lemonade

Remember back in December, when Bala Cynwyd business wonk Gene Marks penned that “If I Were A Poor Black Kid” rant for Forbes? Holy crap that was… crap. But as it turns out, there is a silver lining here: Every time Presumptuous White God closes a door, Presumptuous White God opens a window (for Presumptuous White God, that is). And the good folks at PhillyMag just opened that window for Marks; here, you can read his directives on what to do when the whole motherfucking Internet discovers you’re a racist dummy. That’s, er, mighty white of you guys. We look forward to other pieces such as this, perhaps like, Arthur Kade on the dangers of self-regard, or Larry Mendte on computer security.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 at 11:14 am.

  • B1ff

    the way he crows about how he was able to articulate his racist worldview without  losing a single client is nauseating. who are his clients? someone ought to get in touch with them.

  • http://twitter.com/SusieLauterborn Susie Lauterborn

    This guy has almost 20K twitter followers. Who are these people?

  • Guest

    check sp in title..

  • genemarks

    calling me a racist is pretty dumb too.  But whatever…it won’t stop me from being a fan of your blog.

    Gene Marks

  • Jordan

    Okay, instead of racist, how about woefully ignorant.  feel better now?

  • genemarks

    hah…ok, getting closer!   But you still have no idea how much time I spend every week working with kids in SW Phila.   Please know – it’s a lot.   Not your fault, because that’s what I left out of my original blog.  And it’s not fair to bring them into it.   But by leaving out that information I’m making you (and so many others) more ignorant than you know – and that’s not really fair either, so I apologize. 

  • Jordan

    I am aware from a few of the articles that you spend time working with kids in SW Phia.  Bully for you. Hell, I will agree to whatever number of hours you want to throw out. 

    So whatever that number may be, it apparently wasn’t enough for you actually grapple with the difficulties that you so blithely dismiss or ignore in your original article.

    That you seem to trot out your volunteer creds, rather than respond to the more substantive criticism is pretty telling.

  • genemarks

    Jordan,  you’re calling me names like racist and ignorant instead of keeping the conversation on the topic which is how to help kids.     That’s kind of telling too, isn’t it?  

  • Jordan

    I never called you racist.  I won’t pretend to know what’s in your heart, but whether you are racist or not isn’t really the point.

    As far as woefully ignorant, my point was that your “advice” isn’t very helpful as a primer on how to escape poverty.  I mean sure, it works as a series of talking points that probably make successful people feel smug in their accomplishments, but it doesn’t really grapple with many of the problems that the poor face.  I think I said as much in my previous post.

  • genemarks

    Fair enough I don’t mean to offend.  And I think you’re right what you said.  I’m guilty of that.

    But please know I really wasn’t trying to create a primer on how to escape poverty, I was just trying to put myself in the shoes of the kids I know and think “what would I do?”  

  • b.

    you imagined what it may be like to be a poor black kid, and you completely fucking failed. 
    that’s what they’re saying. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/sarasherr Sara Sherr

    I think some advice from Jay Smooth is needed here and in general:

  • rk

    An honest question: did you ever show that article to a poor black kid? Did you do so before or after posting it? What did they say? 

    In addition, if you weren’t trying to offend, why do you also claim you wouldn’t change the piece that offended so many? Which is it–you do want to offend or you don’t? Because if you don’t want to offend, then you’d have to want to take back most of that original post. Or is it that you don’t want to offend Jordan, in which case, why does Jordan receive that type of respect but anonymous poor black kids don’t?