Poverty.

I thought this article was interesting:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2011/12/12/if-i-was-a-poor-black-kid/

And I especially enjoyed the responses to it.
http://www.good.is/post/an-ode-to-a-poor-black-kid-i-never-knew-how-forbes-gets-it-wrong/

http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/2011/12/what-i-want-you-to-know-if-i-were-poor.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RAGEagainsttheMINIVAN+%28Rage+Against+The+Minivan%29

I know I don't actually know what it's like to be a "poor black kid" (or a poor kid of any minority), but I think and talk with people about this a lot. It breaks my heart that people think like the man who wrote the original article, and it breaks my heart that people just look at the behavior of children and not the cause. Like the kid in the first response that I posted, there is always something going on under the surface. It's so hard to remember when the behavior is frustrating or unnerving or just plain scary, but kids desperately need us to understand that fact.

I'm so thankful for my job that reminds me every day that we're all the same. That no one race is better than another. That the fact that I came from a middle class, white, Christian family doesn't mean I'm better or smarter than anyone else - it just means I had it easy. It means that now I need to do something with that, and work to understand where everyone is coming from.

My thoughts aren't all figured out on this topic yet, but I'll get there eventually.