If I were a rich, white lady...

OK, maybe it's not very original, but I was trying to come up with something as outrageous as a recent column by a self-described balding white guy, and that's what popped into my beleaguered brain.

Gene Marks, a Forbes columnist, wrote a column titled "If I were a poor black kid." I'll let you read it and imagine the response it's received. I'll also point you to a compilation of counterattacks: all of them have "white guy" in the title.

It occurs to me that Gene Marks is suffering from a disease very prevalent among certain elite circles: cluelestitism. They suffer from an inflammation of the organ that detects societal clues. That's why so many out there still haven't figured out what the Occupy movement is all about: they say they're disorganized, they have no goals, what are they protesting for anyway?

Well, if you can't figure that out, but then you think you can advise a "poor black kid" what he needs to do in order to succeed in life, then the horrible disconnect becomes more obvious.

I've been hanging out with four homeless children. You'll read about them soon in the newspaper. And I can't begin to imagine having the audacity to tell these young humans that all they need to do is to study hard and take advantages of free computers to do well in life, to overcome their extremely difficult circumstances. When their mother's deathly sick. When they don't even know where they're going to live next year.

And no, I won't try to tell you what I'd do if I were a rich white lady. I have no idea what's like to live in somebody else's shoes.