Cool Pose

Everyone grows up in a certain lifestyle and within this lifestyle or "map" they are given a set of options. Some options may seem more noticeable then others. But what is it about these options that make one more assessable than the others? Why is it that for example a black kid is more likely found doing drugs or continuing on the path of poverty in their lifestyle or neighborhood and is most likely unable to change? It contemplates whether it is just genetic, personal choice, or just the development of their lifestyle growing up in certain situations. There need to be cool and "skip school" appears to be far greater then a white teenager. And it does not appear that they find whats cool completely different so whats the deal?

Unlike a white teenager/person who is most likely more wealthy then a black teenager will probably go off to college, do good in school and have more present and future success? Or the Chinese people in china town who can relate to black people on poverty, most Chinese families seen in Chinatown live in poverty or public housing just like black people but are not similar in things like work habits or attitude. Although every teenagers probably finds the same things in trying to be cool.

When talking about the Chinese people in china town and how their kids grow up to be doctors and lawyers despite their living environment, conditions, or their interest in being cool. The first thing I thought of during this discussion, is not my brother but my brother's friends. Although social awkward, unlike me who has like only 3 close friends including my boyfriend, my brother had many friend. I would estimate maybe 16 friends, they would come over to my house whenever my dad went on vacation. As I usually would hide in my room because for some reason I just don't fit in with them because for reasons that I think is because 1. they are older and 2. I am not Chinese enough as my boyfriend isn't Chinese and neither is non of my friends.

My brother was not racist but he only liked being friends with other Chinese people, but they were not all stereotypical Chinese kids who usually are seen wearing jeans and a t-shirt and are quite and shy. His friends are all kind of "ghetto" I guess you can call it. They would come over and drink, order Chinese food, smoke pot, and play poker. And although they seemed to be doing things that would seem to lead them to a life of being unsuccessful they surprisingly are really great students, in college, some graduated with bachelor degrees in engineering and so on so forth. So how come it my brothers friends are able to go on a life of being what is known as successful in our society but still are able to do the cool pose?

This whole thing kinda confuzzles me because unlike my brother's friends who live in queens mainly, we live in upper east side. My brother when he lived here although being so extremely intelligent, sadly, he is a complete "loss" as my dad calls it. My brother is probably 10 times smarter then all his friends and didn't exactly grow up in any housing projects or smoke pot like his friends but he happen to just slither by high school, completely bomb college and drop out twice and ended up getting a job a family friend has so graciously provided him in Hong Kong which he just recently decided to quit!! Now thats a handful of stuff that can be looked down upon that many black people are looked down upon as well. So how come my brother who grew up in a comparably more wealthy lifestyle with way more opportunities on his map(I mean he did get into two colleges) and even with influences from his successful pot head friends, why did he take such a unsuspected route? I mean was my brother thinking; unlike my friends I'm going to be unique and totally go the opposite direction even with a lot of routes on my map, of course not.

Although I do not think anyone can understand my brother's thought process on his choices because he is like a robot so I can only hypothesize that maybe he read his map incorrectly. Maybe he figured that his lifestyle compared to black kids or his friends who lived in queens and not Manhattan seemed better and thus making everything fall into place automatically. Who ever know, maybe my brother himself doesn't even know.