These high school moments of awkwardness often result into an implicit agreement when teen-agers become adults to avoid the subject altogether. So, I was intrigued when a colleague sent me a tweet about an article published on Forbes titled If I Were A Poor Black Kid written by Gene Marks. Marks is a middle aged White man with a CPA who has worked as an executive at Fortune 500 companies like KPMG and, in addition to writing articles and books about technology, runs his own consulting business. In his Forbes piece, Marks distills his advice for how poor black kids can improve themselves, specifically through the use of technology.

As someone who advocates for minorities to enter and succeed in the technology industry, I found myself nodding in agreement with much of what Marks shared in his article. However, while most of the content was sound, it didn’t quite sound right. In other words, while I could appreciate Marks’ tune, his tone was off, and a few aspects of his piece were pitchy. And, by pitchy, I mean preachy.

However, instead of bashing Marks as several people did in the 487 comments left on the article, I thought he created an opportunity to have a constructive conversation. Forbes caters to business leaders (often affluent White males) so, despite the weaknesses in Marks’ article, I think it presents a great learning opportunity for those in the publishing company’s target demographic who have a genuine interest in helping poor black kids. However, in order for these affluent whites to truly be effective, there are a few guidelines they should follow in order to avoid the mistakes made by Marks in the post.

Marks starts his article by referring to a recent speech by President Obama:

Marks credits this speech with providing the impetus to get him thinking about poor inner city kids. While I think Marks truly liked Obama’s speech, referring to it sounds like the old cliche used by whites to fend off charges of racism: “Hey, I can’t be racist. I have a black friend”. Since President Obama enjoys enormous support in the black community, Marks’ reference to him comes off as pandering to a group that would probably be offended by the rest of the article. Yes, we love us some Barack Obama, but we also don’t like the appearance of someone trying to make us fall for the okie doke. Most of us are mature enough to have a discussion about race without confirmation from Whites about how good President Obama is at giving speeches.

Throughout the article, Marks refers to the group he is trying to help as “poor black” or “inner city” kids. While there are common experiences that many impoverished black kids share, the reality is that many of them have diverse experiences. I’m sure that if Marks drove the two miles he claims separate his house from the “inner city” he would find kids there that are as unique as his own. I would imagine that Marks, like most affluent Whites, has spent very little time with poor black kids. So, the only inputs to his mental model of their lives are probably news reports (which are probably mostly negative), television and movies (also mostly negative), and perhaps, if Marks is charitable, once or twice a year when he takes part in a clothing or toy drive for underprivileged children. Just as doctors cannot properly prescribe medicine to patients they haven’t seen, affluent whites like Marks is poorly positioned to help poor black kids they rarely spend any time around. If they did, then they would understand that the “inner city” also includes intact two-parent homes, law abiding citizens, and even a brilliant child or two. I’m not advising affluent whites to move into the ghetto, but taking time to serve as mentors to poor black kids would be much more effective than writing articles about a subject they don’t understand in a publication run by a white male billionaire.

Marks references several free or low cost online tools that poor black kids can use to improve their studies. He lists Project Gutenberg, Wikipedia, Backpack, Skype, and others. While these technologies can be powerful learning tools, Marks looks at their use from the perspective of a middle class white male who probably grew up in a middle class home in a white neighborhood. I doubt Marks has ever experienced anything close to the reality of black kids living in poverty. He has probably never had to go through a school day on an empty stomach, had to cut class to go to work to help pay household bills, or, while walking home from school, experienced the fear of being stopped by police officers because they were looking for someone who “looked like him”. I think Marks looked at the technology tools he mentioned in the article and probably thought, “These really would have helped me as a student when I was a kid” and tried to project that usefulness to poor black kids. As I stated before, Marks and other affluent whites need to truly engage with poor black kids and truly understand their reality instead of projecting a false one constructed on their experience of growing up in White America.

I hope Marks’ article is not the last time he writes about using technology to help poor black kids, but I encourage him to try to understand poor black kids if he wants to truly help them. As someone who grew up in a very modest Black neighborhood and used a technology career to become an executive at a multi-billion dollar technology service company, I understand how even a small percentage of affluent whites could provide tremendous help to minorities young and old alike.