The reason I don't give much credence to this whole "if poor black people just made better choices, they wouldn't be poor, so why worry about them" stuff is that basically, it's ridiculous. This person is even counting choices that people don't see as choices- so basically, if I can't get to class because I need to take care of my younger siblings because my mom is in the hospital, I've just chosen to fail, and it's just excuses if rich black people say we need affordable childcare or preventive health care. It also sets up a system in which your worth is seen as a function of your class. I don't agree with this, because it treats me merely attending a top college as more of an accomplishment than someone getting through community college with 3 kids while holding down a job, I find the school work exhausting, but I have a lot of off hours in which to restore myself and prevent health problems.

I also think it's a bad idea, because you could be a mid manager making a good hunk of cash one day, but the CEOs on top might mismanage things and you could end up being let go, and be really poor through no fault of your own. Also, it makes sense to me to focus on what we can change. We could counter the deindustralization of the inner cities by creating more job opportunities there, but we can't make anyone be a good person no matter how much we talk about it. I believe that there is 10% of the population who will succeed no matter what, and 10% that will fail no matter what. I think focusing on the people who can grow as their environment improves is a good idea. We can improve the environment, but talking about how we are better than other people only serves the purpose of making us feel better about ourselves, which could be addressed in ways that would be less harmful to others.