I'm tired of reading defeatist articles and pieces about how young people growing up today have the deck stacked against them and how upward mobility is a myth.
Think upward mobility and achievement is a myth? I have one word for you: Asians.
Yes, Asians. So often coming from nothing, from war-torn or famine-ravaged lands, lands of mass psychosis through cultural revolution and such poverty and repression it is beyond anything we could ever imagine in our worst nightmares. Separated families, war, poverty, starvation, brutal dictatorships, lack of true education and instead brainwashing propaganda. I know these people - Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian. I work with them, am close friends with them, and know their children, families (where there still are families - many have suffered holocausts to the Japanese in WWII), and households. I count so many such very close friends.
These people and their children aren't any more intelligent than any of us here in the United States - born into heaven by comparison. Plus, English is our native tongue - it's not the impossibly difficult new and alien language these Asians must learn (and they don't have every sign written in English and also Chinese or Vietnamese for them either).
No, the secret to their success is they work their asses off, and they focus on what matters. No stupid useless soccer games or football games that leave them nothing but dogged by injuries for life. Instead, studying - and a quest and love for learning and self improvement.
Even when universities discriminate against Asians because they're kicking the asses of Whites, Blacks, and Latinos in test scores and admissions to top schools (not only are Asian students often tops in math, but also English as well), these Asian kids don't bitch or protest - they work even harder. They take up the extracurricular activities admissions officers thought would be roadblocks to provide an excuse to keep them out - and they still excel at their academics.
No, there is no myth of coming from nothing and achieving greatness. Asians are showing us that it's not only possible, but not that uncommon, every single day.