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Comment by andrewmd5 | Hacker News Reader

Author here. This comment section is almost self-aware, which is nice to see. While it’s nice to believe everyone would have the same struggles from the same economic starting point, the reality is that as a poor white person it is much easier to find your way out of poverty.

You’ll have more job opportunities presented to you, more people willing to take risk. Of course it also helps not to have hundreds of years to systemic racism on your next as well which allows other members of your family to likely not be poor — thus able to support you.

You can’t erase race because you don’t understand it and it makes you uncomfortable to acknowledge that being white has its benefits. That’s why the American Dream is so far out of reach to many: https://andrew.im/essays/a-journey-to-the-american-dream

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Why do black people deserve special treatment above other disadvantaged demographics, like Appalachian whites, Cambodian Americans, Laotian Americans, whose median incomes are lower than that of Black Americans?

The author makes no such claim.

It's clear (at least to me) that due to the history of systemic racism against them as well as the circumstances under which they came to live on this continent, many Black Americans are at a tangible disadvantage compared to most other groups in the US, especially White people. So I certainly believe in what you would call a Black Tax.

However, it does seem to me like the specific things you speak about in this essay could be considered to be more of a Poor Tax, which disproportionately affects Black Americans more than White People, due to the factors above. But taking just this specific essay, one could replace every instance of the word "Black" with "immigrant" or "Latino" or "Native American", etc, and it would be just as true.

Again, not to take away from the main point that Black people have it harder than many other races in the Americas (and some other places). But as an immigrant to the US, from a family that sends streams of money and goods to support our family members back home, it's nearly impossible not to think "hold on, this isn't an exclusively Black experience" when reading this essay.

That’s correct! You could call it a brown tax and it still holds universal truth. A really good book on that subject is The Divide: Global Inequality from Conquest to Free Markets.

These are assertions. And they aren’t balanced, and they aren’t back up with citations.

This comment ignores large scale affirmative action programs in education and in large corporations. How do you know for sure there are in fact less opportunities for one group or another?

The way opportunity plays out for various people is fantastically complex, how do you know you’ve figured it out to a degree that is useful for creating change?

Unfortunately this entire topic leads to Balkanization.

While I acknowledge your point of view and opinion, I do not agree with your premise. Racism is not as important as the current political discourse would have us believe.

I leave these topics of race to comedians who bring so much needed levity. Theo Von

https://youtu.be/MvzwmoZaNHQ

“This comment section is almost self-aware” can you expand on what you mean by that?

It is terminology from Critical Race Theory, which is an ideology whose basic premise is that all white people, irrespective of their actual behavior or beliefs, perpetrate racism against everyone else.

"Self-aware" refers to white people who realize they are racist.

Edit: Removed my own opinion from this to try to make it purely factual.

> the reality is that as a poor white person it is much easier to find your way out of poverty.

You misunderstand. The comments are not about race, but the individual decision that's always available to you, to break away from a losing game.

Likewise, I was dragged down by my family who defined what I should aspire to (ex: being a doctor or a professor or a lawyer while I liked computers) and what I should do (ex: give them money to help them). I tried to do what I was told and realized it caused failure.

> which allows other members of your family to likely not be poor — thus able to support you.

After noticing and analyzing the pattern of failure in my family, I decided it would stop with me - by disassociating from them.

From your post:

> That is why it should come as no surprise that so few Black people have successfully built generational wealth: we’re always actively trying to keep the current generation alive

That's your mistake.

Eventually, I decided "screw them, I don't give a flying fuck even if they starve to death" -best decision of my life!

Yes, it involved a lot of risk, as I knew they would never help me again in return, but being in the US it was almost a given I would never return.

Now I'm a young retiree.

I was asked money- more than once, especially after they knew I had made it. I told them in very clear term I'd rather burn my money and become a bum than give them a single dollar. That stopped the claims :)

> That’s why the American Dream is so far out of reach to many: https://andrew.im/essays/a-journey-to-the-american-dream

You're so wrong. The American Dream is out of reach because selfishness is unfortunately not taught. We give people wrong values (help your friends, support your family etc) and act all surprised they fail in life.

It's a honest mistake to make- the same as having kids in the hope they will help you in the future (they might) while they will certainly cost you in the present and the future (they sure will)

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