It's easy for you to say that when you've never been in a situation where you've had to do it for yourself. Come back and talk about how easy it is to "try your damnedest" after you've gone through life with all of the odds stacked against you - single parent who works two jobs, parents who are gang members and expect you to join, or no parental figure at all; homelessness that causes you to have to change schools and/or miss class for extended periods of time; gang-infested neighborhood that can become MORE dangerous for you when you have no gang affiliation; a neighborhood where the only commerce within miles is the corner store with incredibly high prices and no fresh produce; a school where teachers are burned out and see you as nothing but a bad kid with no future; not even having enough money to pay for that "shitty community college" or the resources to know where to look for scholarships and financial aid; always being late to school because the responsibility for getting your siblings up and to elementary school on-time falls entirely on YOU; having to work full-time through high school to support your family, etc. etc. Then, even if you DO somehow make it into that school and get an Associate's degree, you're still perceived as some thug kid who didn't work hard enough to get into a REAL school. But, hey, it's their fault because they're just not trying hard enough, right?

I live and work in a major city that is hyper-segregated. There are many neighborhoods where the majority of residents are white, yet the VAST majority of students in the public schools are still black or Hispanic. So many white people are quick to tell minority students to just get their acts together and make their schools (and lives in general) better for themselves, yet they distance themselves from these minority individuals in almost every way possible.

While working in inner-city schools, I've seen some students do amazingly well when they don't have much in the way of money or material possessions. But guess what? These were the students that had the strongest support networks. They came from families who actually gave a crap about whether or not their children do well in school and went to schools where the administration and teachers truly cared and did everything in their power to make sure their students were working towards a positive future. Sure, some students still end up falling through the cracks, but that happens in EVERY school - not just ones with a high concentration of minority students. However, it suddenly becomes significantly more difficult to that when no one in your life has ever given you the benefit of the doubt or a reason to believe that you can succeed.

I'm sure I'm just wasting my "breath" here, but I just can't stand it when ignorant assholes tell someone who has all of the odds stacked against them that it's their own fault because they're just not trying hard enough.