Context to a Businesskid On A Cloud:
FREE YOURSELF FROM MENTAL SLAVERY. Or follow this blog to do so.
I'm a bald head Samsonite Rastafari with a liking for politics, media, sociology, psychology, economics, ganja and other topics.
What you'll read here are usually posts analyzing the world around me through a Gestalt lens. The picture is clearer when you look at the whole thing, rather than just the flower in the foreground. Join(t) me and read about a world of interconnected problems and possible solutions! And of course, random rantings and weed.
Explaining to non-Black people why asking to feel a Black person’s hair is strange, at the least rude, at the worst racist, and almost never happens to people without natural hair
*Facepalm*
This really shouldn’t be that hard to explain. Who else’s hair do you ask to feel, or feel motivated to feel, that isn’t an animal?
I know there’s 400 years of slavery that we’re unique to, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to understand personal boundaries, or how frequently they’re broken, especially for Black women.
I’m not looking for the deracialized MLK quotes and moments today
I’ve seen quite a lot of “deracializing” of MLK through some of his more humanistic quotes in the recent past.
I’m honestly not a patron of that kind of thinking. MLK is often taught as this bastion of innocent peace that was in stark contrast to the malicious, race baiting, Black Power hungry Malcolm X. It’s forgotten that he’s said a lot directly about racism and even related topics such as what would later be called microaggression, hidden dialect, and disguised abstract liberalism. He was also much more Black Power supportive than many would like to admit.
There’s a lot of attempts to focus on the humanistic quotes over anything racial from MLK. I think it’s because an honest examination of what MLK had to say about race then, would lead us to realize how little has changed until now. There’s still deep inequalities in legal treatment of Blacks in the United States. Our schools remain heavily segregated by race, only now driven heavily by economics and structural/institutionalized division. Even with a Black President about to be inaugurated into office, the Black American Man is still more likely to end up dead or behind bars than able to achieve the American Dream in any form.
And for the most part the United States has continued to lie to itself, and become convinced that the plight of the Black American is self-administered, rather than enabled by a system that still hasn’t seriously attempted to correct the imbalances in its legal and social administration.
In the end, I really have to ask if we’ve achieved MLK’s dream, or simply are making progress toward it. I’m thankful for either though, and willing to fight to continue the latter.
In the late 90s and early 2000s, Black people in the United States held $.10 of wealth for every $1.00 Whites held [1]. Today, the gap has grown. In 2009, the median wealth of White households was 20 times that of Blacks [2]. In other words, Blacks now hold just $.05 to the dollar. The median…
A very interesting, detailed, and accurate piece on how U.S. local and federal policies as late as the 1960s, and complementary realtor racism noted as late as the 2000s, has contributed to a historic suppression of wealth in Black and other minority communities. Especially of interest to those that think institutional racism is long dead and its effects presently null.
Makes more than enough sense when you recognize how much teacher discrimination and self-esteem play a role in student academic success.
Did you know that the CFOs of Victoria’s Secret and Estee Lauder are a black woman? And so are the COO of Club Monaco and the CAO of Conde Nast.
It’s crazy how you never really know these kinds of things, except from a good article.
Too fucking bad Victoria Secret still runs their business as though nobody above a size 12 could possibly want some sexy fucking undies. Oh, wait- they run Lane Bryant so we can just send the ‘chubbers’ to a whole different store that suits their bootylicious needs. Because segregation has always worked out well, along with body dysmorphic concepts of desirability. Thanks, ladies. Way to represent.
The above comment kept it VERY real!
For women, people of color, and the elderly, those disproportionately affected by the growing mass incarceration policy environment, there may be hope for change. Long needed change.
There is a balance between standards and acceptance of a diverse work place and culture. This balance needs to be one done from a position of awareness of the biases you’re vulnerable. As a white individual in a diverse business environment you must be aware that majority does not constitute normalcy. People from all backgrounds and colors should be encouraged to contribute their background, expertise, and culture in a professional manner. This opens the mental awareness of the team as a whole and contributes to healthy workplace interactions.
Unfortunately, that’s not what happened in this case. The employer took an extreme and ill-thought approach to the situation that neither solved it or contributed to the maturity of the organization.
Awesome read.
But it really is though.
At least at the heart of the issue. That’s to say, it’s the same lowered valuation of a Black Male’s life that leads to people having higher tolerance thresholds for murder.
I ask the same question, would this man have fired into the vehicle so easily if the kids inside looked like him? Would he have felt as threatened if all the variables were the same, but they were a bunch of rowdy white kids instead?
At what point are we going to acknowledge that an inherently biased fear of Black males still exists in this country, and has led to the unnecessary murders of countless Black men and teens in our history?
I think I need to do a White Paper on Racism vs. Discrimination
I had the issue come up in the past where I find that people tend not to know the difference. Understandable considering I can count on my hands how many times Media outlets have used the term “racism” correctly.
It’s one of those things that in my experience everyone on all sides gets incorrect. Which sucks because differences between racism, discrimination, and sexism (and other “ism”s) become important when discussing and differentiating between your neighborhood tweeting asshole and irreversible systems. It’s also the key reason why I’ve had a hard time explaining to white people the impossibility of “reverse racism.”
Should be fun. Hope there’s people out there with good stuff to contribute and discuss on the topic!
