There should be no time like the present in which we people of color should be excited about ruling (i.e. running the show, leading a department, heading up a team, etc.). After all we do have a black President what better example to set that we can do it all. Yet the question nags at me like a bad mosquito bite, can we really do it all? Can we rule effectively? Can we keep our color or better yet their color out of the way?
The past 20 years or so Corporate America has been a harbor of colonial racism. It is clear that most corporate leaders are still white males and most people of color are still working their way up, whether from the mailroom, secretary, to a “team lead” (which seems to be new buzz word replacing Manager or Supervisor). However, tides are changing a bit where we are seeing people of color rise even further and running the show. Look at Herman Cain, despite his ridiculous attempt to run President, let us not forget he was CEO of Godfather Pizza. As we start to move our way up and begin to rule, there are clearly some issues that still reside with color and for once I will not be writing about injustice on people of color, but how about some of us just lose our damm minds when get to the top of that hill!
In the trenches of contracting I come across many interesting people. The latest of this long line of interest is my current boss. She’s around 10 years younger than me, African American, bright, no-nonsense, a huge go-getter, basically she makes Momma proud. However, she has problems running our team or should I say managing the “white folks”. To best describe her actions I’ll lay out an actual scenario between Blacktina, Boss Lady and a “Heather”
Boss Lady – Blacktina you NEED to complete your project
Blacktina – My project is complete
Boss Lady – Heather where do you stand with your project
Heather – I’ve been so busy with such and such and I didn’t have the time to finish (Background, project was given on a Thursday with a completion date the following Friday; it is now the following Wednesday. Heather had a week plus 2 days to complete)
Boss Lady – Blacktina since you’re done I want you to take some of Heather’s components and wrap it up.
At this point Blacktina is doing the Scooby Doo screech like “huh”. First of all my workload is just as heavy if not more. I was given the same deadline, the same amount of work, yet because of the severity I worked over the weekend to complete this and make sure it was done. Not one did Boss Lady say, great job Blacktina for completing. All she did was look at the fact that I was done and gave me “Heather’s” work. Now it could be me but I thought I was being penalized for being efficient. Yet I understand Boss Lady is trying to manage an initiative and make sure it gets done, however, she wasn’t managing her employees properly. Not once was Heather told she must complete her project. Notice my conversation started with “Blacktina you NEED to complete your project” Heather was asked, “where does she stand”, clearly two different approaches to the same topic.
Some may think I might have been a bit sensitive, however, this isn’t the only the incident. There have been other incidents in which the white people are clearly out of line with their responses, similar to what President Obama goes through with Congress. My white colleagues will go off on Boss Lady without hesitation. One actually called her a liar on a conference call, (very Republican like, hmmm…..). And almost like President Obama my boss did not defend herself she just pleaded for a chance to clarify. Yet if one of us speaks up it’s met with a boss who all of a sudden knows how to rule. These actions have not gone unnoticed, as there clearly is chatter within the plantation among the folks and her comparison to that of a field slave who was promoted to overseer and will do anything to please Massa. Except in this case she’s Massa and she shouldn’t have to work so damm hard on pleasing those of Massa’s color!
Corporate America should have a therapist on hand all the time. Being a person of color we have to deal so many varieties of shit. First from the “others” who don’t know how to treat us and then unfortunately from our own selves! It’s quite sad that some of us in charge feel we can’t exercise equality. We can’t be fair to our own people without being labeled as “looking out” for our own. Yet white people do it all the time it’s called “networking”. They look out for each other and don’t think twice about it. Please don’t get me wrong I’m not saying hook me up cause I’m black. I’m saying give me a fair chance like you do the others. It’s bad enough I have to deal with this new form of secretive racism but it’s even more of a shame that I have to deal with inner racism.
Keep ya head up folks!
Peace Out,
Blacktina