Cinderella In Dnlee's 'If I Were A Poor Black Kid'

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The likely hood that a “poor black kid” will survive plight conditions is beyond the means of their hard work. That is why DNLee’s, “If I Were a Wealthy White Suburbanite”, response to “If I Were a Poor Black Kid” by Gene Marks is strongly accurate. DNLee uses Cinderella as an analogy to further bolster her point. Just as Cinderella’s heinous stepmother and stepsisters make it nearly impossible to attend the ball, disparity makes it nearly impossible for a poor black kid to achieve a prosperous life. “Working hard is important; but let’s not be naïve.”(DNLee 265) It does not matter how much of a hard worker a person is because there are more challenging factors that lead to obtaining a successful life. Racism is a clear reality in society …show more content…

The poverty that poor black Americans experience is often different from the poverty of poor whites. It is more isolating and esoteric. It fans out of family homes and inundates the entire neighborhood; the streets, the schools, the grocery stores, the community centers. A poor black family, in short, is much more likely than a poor white family to live in a neighborhood where many other families are poor. Creating what is called the "double standard" of poverty. “The sense of privilege that he [Marks], a multi-generation white class guy has to share his wisdom with all of those ‘poor black socially-orphaned children out there in the West Phillies of the world’ is astounding” (DNLee 256). Assuming that those children have no direction is a misconception that many white privileged Americans assume. And that assumption is why the life chances and opportunities of people of color in the United States are limited as compared to whites. Place continues to be a defining characteristics of the opportunity structure. Children growing up in more privileged neighborhoods often ponder what they will do when they grow up; as were poor children ponder on if they will even have the opportunity to grow up. The privileged are so blind that even they do not realize it, and they do not see that others are not privileged. As Cinderella’s privileges and opportunities were taken from her, her chance at the ‘good life’ was too. The element of the good life, however defined, is only accessible to those who are

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