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Philly Mag hires Gene "if I were a poor black kid" Marks
Marks, who lectured poor black kids in Forbes, has been hired by a second publication known for its diverse readership: Philadelphia Magazine. I asked editor Tom McGrath why.
Philly Mag hires Gene “if I were a poor black kid” Marks
In December, Philadelphia-area pundit and motivational writer-speaker Gene Marks wrote to Forbes.com readers: “I am not a poor black kid.” Yet, in his nationally infamous essay “If I Were a Poor Black Kid,” he had plenty of advice for poor black kids: 1) stop complaining about your crappy schools and study harder 2) use a lot of technology, like having Skype conversations with other go-getter ghetto youth!
Now Marks has been hired by a second publication known for its diverse readership: Philadelphia Magazine [Note: sorry for not making this clear earlier—hired as a blogger for Philly Post]. So I asked editor Tom McGrath, who I thank for his candor, why it is “appropriate to hire the person in this city who has written the most racially-insensitive article of the year?”
“We don't,” responds McGrath, “base our hiring decisions―we don't stick our finger to the wind and say, 'Has this person offended anybody?”
But, I asked, wasn't the “poor black boy” post exactly why you hired him? Could you imagine hiring him under any other circumstance? McGrath wouldn't speculate, but did defend Marks' post — sort of.
“I also don't know,” he says, “that the vast majority of people found the post racially insensitive.”
Plus, he says, Marks is a talented writer. In what sense, I persisted, is Marks ― author of “In God We Trust: Everyone Else Pays Cash” and “The Complete Idiot's Guide To Successful Outsourcing” ― a “talented” writer?
“The stuff of his that I've read, I generally enjoyed.” Okay.
McGrath also says that Philadelphia Magazine aims for ideological diversity, which I think is all fine and well. But doesn't he think it would be prudent for a writer to base his commentary on poor black people on some sort of reporting or social science or something besides his own privileged gut instincts?
“You would be better asking that question to Gene,” answers McGrath. “I don't think it's my job to necessarily speak on his behalf.”
Marks, it turns out, is not evil incarnate: "I volunteer twice a week to coach a bunch of 7th and 8th graders at a public middle school in SW Philadelphia," he writes me. "I have close family members who have worked there for 7 years. I know many of the students, staff and administrators. The school is 99% black. And mostly poor. I spent 7th-12th grade in Philadelphia public schools and grew up in Germantown.... Back in December I thought to myself: what if I were a poor black? what could I possibly do to succeed in a world with so much inequality. If the kids at the school were purple then my title would've been different."
Okay: not evil, but the Forbes post is still powerfully and profoundly wrongheaded — and it is most certainly why McGrath hired him.
Blaming poor people of all races (and particularly poor Philadelphians) for their problems is really hot this season. Earlier this year, crypto-eugenicist and conservative superstar Charles Murray, long preoccupied by the shortcomings of poor black people, published a book attacking white working-class people from “Fishtown” for their declining “industriousness” and piety. Philadelphia Magazine, for its part, infamously named the Mummers on their “10 Things We Need To Get Rid Of” list in December'.
I applaud Marks for his volunteer coaching, but I somehow can't see him door-to-door pamphleteering in Southwest Philly, explaining that “the biggest challenge we face isn’t inequality. It’s ignorance.” Or Murray, standing atop a Fishtown barstool, upbraiding the indolent slobs gathered before him. Their current readers are, of course, ever hungry for a reassurance that they deserve everything they have, and that the poor and working class deserve to remain without everything they lack.
Inaccurate in so many ways...but a fun read.
Besides my contributions to the Philly Post, please also check out my weekly columns for the New York Times, Forbes and the Huffington Post. And please also ready my monthly contributions to Accounting Today Magazine and various CPA journals. The editors at Philly Mag are in good company.
And just to round up some of the things Dan missed, please check out just a few people who are as passionate as I am about doing what we can to help kids succeed....
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/01/victimology_and_the_phony_digital_divide.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sqyZKk7JBQ&feature=player_embedded#!
Thanks.— genemarks- This post is embarrassing.
1. How is this news? Marks has been on Philly Post for two months now.
2. Did you ask him if he's getting paid? Not everyone on Philly Post does. Regardless it's absurd to say he's been "hired."
3. They probably "hired" him because the black kid post drew tons of negative attention and comments, including on this website. Nothing to do with readers "hungry for a reassurance that they deserve everything they have," all about page hits.— HowardJimjam
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