PoorBlackKid.com
Guy sees article in Forbes he thinks is stupid.
Guy tweets that he thinks its stupid.
Guy is asked by CNN to write a column on how it's stupid.
Response is so great he creates a web app.
Web app gets props on UP with Chris Hayes on MSNBC.

All within a week.

Not sure the point of my story, save that the Web makes for blazingly fast--and creative!--disputation. The original column achieved its goal: a discussion on how education results in a better income (we knew that already) and if you're in poverty, it may be a way out.

Some of the responses on various blog sites are astonishing.

As to PoorBlackKid.com, here's an excerpt:

is it hard to learn HTML and CSS on the streetz?

Not as hard as you might think! Once I focused on finally getting the whole reading thing down, it probably took me two hours to learn how to operate a computer and code. I’m working on my Python skills this weekend.

I must say that, as a person who wasn't poor or Black, but had never met an engineer and had a family income under $20,000 when I set off to learn engineering at Carnegie-Mellon, I'm a little surprised at the vehemence by which people insist that an engineering education won't lead to a job for a Poor Black Kid.


Not to let the cat out of the bag, but the guy behind PoorBlackKid.com is a graduate of, uh,... Sidwell Friends.