{excerpted}
“Tell me, how many black folks do you know who are willing to pick lettuce and tomatoes on a farm, or wash dishes and mop the floors in some restaurant, or spread cow manure to fertilize crops and do other field work? You can look around and see that fewer African-Americans are working such jobs. “
“My Mexican workers - I don’t care if it’s rainy, snowing or if it’s hot - they are willing to work,” says Joseph Nevels, an African-American and president of Nevels Landscape Co. in Grafton. “It doesn’t matter what kind of work. As far as Mexicans are concerned, any type of work that they get is better than life back home.”
…”By and large, African-Americans don’t want this kind of work,” says Clayborn Benson, founder and executive director of the Wisconsin Black Historical Society and Museum, 2620 W. Center St. “What Fox is saying is true. You hear it in the form of black kids who say, ‘I don’t want to work at no McDonald’s’ or they don’t want a minimum wage job.”
“White Americans aren’t exactly lining up for such jobs either.”
‘But African-Americans aren’t high enough up the economic ladder to make the same choices. If you’re on the bottom rung, then you’ve got to climb the ladder in stages, which means you might have to work at a job that you don’t enjoy and for lower wages. It’s a start; you don’t have to stay there…”more
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Earl Graves , founder of Black Enterprise magazine is calling for “…African-Americans to take their vacation business out of Mexico in the wake of President Vicente Fox’s comments.” (more)
Over “comments”.
(Yes, I know Mexico still does the black face comedy thing down there, but there was no hell raised from the black American community about that.)
Personally, I think Elie nails the issue right on the head. Simply put, the work habits of black folk here in America are way different that those that come from another country—AND WE KNOW IT!!
For too long we have allowed Liberalism to take the place of down-home, sweet-tea drinking, front porch sittin’ common sense. Check out this press release from the Philadelphia-area African-American Chamber of Commerce (AACC):
{excerpted}
…(The)African-American Chamber of Commerce (AACC) found that 40 percent are experiencing difficulty in finding appropriately trained employees to work in their companies and that targeted training programs would allow them to hire more people, with greater confidence. Among the impediments to finding suitable employees, the businesses said, was “technical skills deficiency,” “insufficient training,” “lack of expertise
in the business’s specialty,” “lack of education,” a “lack of a clean background” and a “lack of work ethic, professionalism and punctuality.” The firms, each of which was African-American owned, said that being able to hire qualified African-Americans is a high priority for their businesses.
Let’s look at this sentence closer:
Among the impediments to finding suitable employees, the businesses said, was “technical skills deficiency,” “insufficient training,” “lack of expertise in the business’s specialty,” “lack of education,” a “lack of a clean background”
For the most part, Mexicans coming into this country have all of these strikes against them (the clean background part does not apply to all. For sake of argument, let’s replace that with the fact that they are illegal), yet somehow they still outnumber us in this part of the employment sector.
Now look that the next part of this sentence:
…and a “lack of work ethic
All of us know of some “folk” in our own family that seem to be this way since day one. Before you get your shorts bunched, I am not saying all black folks are like this. I am simply saying that if we are honest with ourselves, we know that if we just look at the next generation of black folks (10-17yrs), the work ethic of our parents/grandparents is simply not there. Ask any public school teacher.
I know of numbers of black business owners/managers who will admit this problem does exist in private. Unless we bring this problem out in the open like these black businessmen in Philly, this problem will continue to exist while we allow self-appointed leaders to declare that racism is the culprit. I know of many black folks who will get a low-paying job and stay there for years. WHY? Not because of racism, but because they do not know how to plan for the next step. I have also seen black folks who will start out in these same jobs and eventually move ahead because they knew the value of planing ahead. Yet these same black folks are looked at as Uncle Toms, sell-outs, or the white-man’s boy (these are the things we say in private to others that feel the same way) by many black co-workers because they were diligent enough to take advantage of opportunities. I should know because I used to be one of the main ones dishing out the insults.
The other point that Elie raises in her piece is also very key:
“If you’re on the bottom rung, then you’ve got to climb the ladder in stages, which means you might have to work at a job that you don’t enjoy and for lower wages. It’s a start; you don’t have to stay there…”
We all had to start from somewhere and get paid crap for doing it. As much as I hated it during those days, the experience made a life-long impression on me. As a person who suffered from the dot.com bust, I know what it is like to not have employment for a long time and have a family to support. Both me and my wife had to take jobs that seemed to be a slap in the face of my illustrious career in IT. At one point, both my wife and I had to take the office cleaning jobs alongside Mexicans. No doubt, it was very humiliating work. Your cleaning toilets of the crowd that you used to be a part of–very humiliating.
But guess what? I would go to the library and unemployment office everyday to use their resources to find a better job with a drop of gas in my car. As time went by, I was able to secure much better employment well on my way back to securing the financial stability of my family.
What got me though it? My faith, my wife and kids, and knowing that the people before me had it a lot worse, but were still able to make it. Let me not forget the years I did yard work without getting paid for it laid the early groundwork for a strong work ethic in my life. Those times that I was not working felt like an eternity because I knew I needed to be doing something.
Many of OUR youth today know nothing about the concept of “busting yo’ chops” to get to the next level. We have allowed Liberalism to graft in our culture the false expectation that the world owes you because you are black. Yet when black folk like me say these kind of things, we are ridiculed as being insensitive and demeaning to the poor–all for telling the truth (the same thing we holla’ to the preacher on Sundays –if you go to church) Guess what, I was poor too! The reason why people like Cosby may sound hard to some is simply because he is making up for what we have refused to tell this emerging generation for years. I believe in my people more than any political party. This is why I spend so much time here at my computer trying to do my part in hopes that something is getting through to somebody out there. I have seen the power of a black person endure racism, injustice, and hell and still come out on top. They had a lot of scars, but they were also met with much success. Racism is very real, but so is our avoidance to face the facts about ourselves.
Preach Brotha!!! First off, let me acknowledge your site is the second one I check everyday (After I review the Atlanta Journal Constitution). I like the fact you highlight so many aspects of our culture, other than politics. I especially enjoyed the bio/info on George Duke. I am currently looking for a good compilation collection from him.
Second, you are 100% on point with the insight of this younger generation. This mistakes of the fathers (and mothers) are often realized in the children. I am 35, so I figure we are in the same generation. Many of us grew up poor or close to it. But our parents continued to climb the ladder, and instilled in us the attitude and work ethic to get ahead in the hopes we would advance at least one socio-economic level beyond them.
Now, many of us in this younger generation are being influenced by all aof the wrong things. They hear the “po-mouthin’” messages of the black elite, not even realizing that all of them have bachelor degrees, as well as graduate degrees. The hip-hop culture resembles nothing of the fun loving, feel good rap culture that we enjoyed as teens. It has fostered a self destructive, selfish, hedonistic, anti0life, anti love , anti-intellectual mindset. And our youth are eating it up like candy, without realizing it is a commercial media invention just like Britney Spears and NSYNC.
We, as a people, need to learn how to compartmentalize racism and its effect, and how our own behavior contributes to the dynamic within our communities.
Peace
Thanx for your comments!
I don’t love this comment. I don’t disagree with every component of it, but I don’t love it.
Were I heading up that chamber of commerce, do you know how I would have concluded that statement “…and here is my proposal for this body to adopt [the worst] High School and ensure that the next generation of children are receiving the life skills and mentoring they need to compete in the modern work environment.”
You said: “We have allowed Liberalism to graft in our culture the false expectation that the world owes you because you are black.” That’s patently untrue. While I think there are some African Americans who use “the race card” to excuse unacceptable behavior, on a macro level, you are merely blaming the victim. We have a generation of kids wholly abandoned by elite African American role models, whose schools resemble prisons, and who are treated with contempt by larger society. To claim that they have an expectation of entitlement!!! They receive a mere fraction of the things all kids truly are entitled to! But it’s much easier to attack (especially poor) African Americans than a larger society which creates systematic pathologies. Poor blacks are such easy targets…
Chris, that was a great post, and I partially agree with certain portions of it: “We need to separate racist elements outside of the community, and dysfunctional elements within the community. The line between the two has been made to be indistinguishable, but the two are really two separate arguments.”
However, is it possible to completely separate the pathologies of the external society with the pathologies of the internal community? Is there not a positive causal relationship between the two? For example, much our your solution hinges on African American males re-claiming responsibility for the ills of our community (feminist hackles raised; I’m a liberal, I’m relatively young; I knee-jerk, so sue me
). But how can we even begin to discuss that without contemplating the state and federal drug laws which disproportionately target African Americans and are projected to result in more African American convicts than white in our prison system by 2010? How can a man raise a family from jail? And if a man knows he is very likely to be incarcerated in his lifetime, what is his motivation to even try?
I don’t want to dismiss your comment, because as you correctly pointed out, African Americans have rallied and elevated ourselves from worse tangles than this. But does that abrogate larger society’s responsibility to confront the residues of slavery and for once in 400 years, give the African American community a break? Can we go one generation without some form of societal attack, be it slavery, sharecropping, segregation (North and South), and now drugs and incarceration? Where is society’s responsibility in this? Why is there such a plethora of African American elites all too willing to call out our community but many fewer who are ready to take on NY’s Rockefeller drug laws or the fact that Brown v. Board of Ed was never fully implemented?
GN,
You just have to type in your comments once. It will show up once I approve it. I had to do it this way because of the large volume of spam I get on this site.
GN,
This may seem like a silly question, but trust me I am not trying to demean you by asking. There is a point to it.
Do you have any admiration for the black panther party? Why or why not?
I guess I’m missing something here. The association should adopt a school and provide a solution. A solution to what?
You and me both. We’re missing…my coherence. I could have elaborated that point in a better fashion.
Loni Guinier wrote an essay, Admissions Rituals as Political Acts, advancing a theory that corporate “adoption” of poor-performing high schools is one solution to the African American educational crisis and would perform far better than most educational affirmative action programs. Basically, by “adopting” a high school, organizations and corporations provide the school with necessities, such as current textbooks and other teaching supplies. This liaison also offers the organization the opportunity to mentor the children and ensure that they are truly learning the skills set necessary for economic survival.
There is a case in point of this idea: an Atlanta corporation adopted an extremely low-performing high school and was able to manufacture impressive results. I’ll comment later with links to the story.
GN,
You left one important word out when you mentioned “African-American empowerment” It actually was African-American self reliance. Here is a little more on that important aspect:
Now I will be the first to tell you that I disagree with much of the BPP philosophy (including what you had already mentioned), but the black self reliance part is pure gold.
What good is it for us black folk to talk about how strong of a people we are and how our people back in the day were kings and queens and yet today we subject all of that rich history to what goes on in Washington? There is no doubt in my mind that you are quite intelligent and are mature in discussing these issue. One thing really puzzles me in your argument–you fail to address the self-infliction that we put on ourselves (black on black crime, our men impregnating our women, but in many cases fail to stay to raise the child, communities that constantly stay in shambles because WE will not clean them, etc. etc. etc.). Before you answer, I want you to really give that a whole lot of thought. Slavery was very wrong and no doubt it did create a cycle in our community, but guess what? We know nothing of slavery beyond what we read in books. It isn’t white people that is making our men impregnate our women and leave them. It isn’t white people that is placing the crack pipe in our mouths. Think on this, if you had a child from a brotha and one day he just left you altogether, would you say that was the white man’s fault or his?
At some point, we have to shoulder the blame–rich or poor.
EG and Duane, both of you have given me something to think about.
EG, you have a point: why wait until high school to intervene? Why not “adopt” elementary and junior high (middle) schools? Although I think attention, resources and mentoring can still yield results at a high school level, you are correct, why not intervene earlier?
Duane, I think there needs to be a balance between addressing the external versus internal influences which assault our community. My point is that I can’t see how one can truly separate the two: there is a causal relationship between the residues of slavery and a society which still victimizes African Americans and the victimization that we inflict upon ourselves. Too many analyses are all too ready to address the internal issues while minimizing the external ones. I don’t think there are easy, clear-cut answers to our crisis: one the on hand, there are some African Americans who I myself want to shake some sense into; on the other, I have to realize that most African Americans don’t have it easy in this country, and impoverished African Americans fight battles of which I can only speculate because I have no idea how difficult their lives are.
I admit that I tend to knee-jerk on this issue, and err on the side of giving African Americans, particularly those who are poor, some latitude when analyzing their struggles.
Allow me to add my two cents to the discussion.
1. I don’t think you mean that the work habits of most blacks are different in purpose and intensity. The examples given have been lower-pay employees. That does not infer that Mr. Parsons of TimeWarner works less than his white CEO counterpart or Senator Obama works less than Senator Salazar. I believe the point is that the work habits of most black folk in low wage jobs are different in purpose and intensity than immigrants.
2. The number of blacks vs. immigrants for a job at picking grapes is quite telling. It displays what people see as options. Most Black Americans see a day laborer position as one of several employment options. Most immigrants see the same job as one of a few employment options. Because of external barriers (language, education, legal status), immigrants are blocked from employment of many better-paying jobs. Most Black Americans don’t see these same external barriers. This leads to my third point.
3. The public system does not equip most inner-city students with the skills to obtain better-paying jobs. Despite a diploma, many students are not equipped but the math, English and basic work ethic skills to work in positions where the pay is higher than minimum wage. The students and their parents look at a high school diploma as a ticket to a better job than at fast food restaurants. So when we go to McDonald’s and receive poor service, it is the attitude of the workers. The customer thinks the employee should be happy working in the establishment and we frown at the display of indifference of the employees. [I think this is what GN was referring to about the contempt of whites and elite blacks toward the poor blacks.] The employee cannot understand why he/she is forced to work at these wages and others have better positions with the same level of education. What the employee doesn’t grasp is his diploma is not equal to another diploma from another school system or even another school in the same school district.
“Despite a diploma, many students are not equipped but the math, English and basic work ethic skills to work in positions where the pay is higher than minimum wage.” should be
“Despite a diploma, many students are not equipped with the math, English and basic work ethic skills to work in positions where the pay is higher than minimum wage.”
Let me “end” with this:
My younger cousin worked at a franchise restaraunt. The store she worked at was frequented by senior citizens. If it matters, they were Jewish senior citizens. The staff was primarily Black.
When I went there to support my kin, I noticed all of the wait staff having conversations with the older patrons. And they knew them by name; Miss X., Mr. Y., Mrs. Z.
I caught on quickly. They were working the older patrons for tips. I thought that they realized that many of the older patrons were probably somewhat lonely and this was a good way to “get out and meet people.” The conversation resulted in higher tips. My cousin confirmed it.
Later, a new manager came in. Within 1 week, most of the Black staff was terminated. A white waitress came to my cousin’s house and said it was because the new manager thought, IN GENERAL, Black wait staff were bad. She offered to testify if people sued. My cousin, and the rest of the Black staff that were fired, turned down the offer and went about their lives.
The store closed, primarily because of a fall in receipts.
The new wait staff that manager hired, was primarily white.
Have a good weekend. Enjoy the family.
Where is the logic in singling out Black Americans as having a problem when it is an American problem?
Where then the logic of calling ourselves Black Americans, or using the terminology black music, or having Black history month. since where all “Americans”? If you are going to make that statement, then you must know that it goes both ways.
Problems that happen in let’s say the Johnson household is a Johnson problem, not a Chicago problem. We can roll with the “village raises the child” mantra, but in the end no matter how embarassing it is, it begins with the Johnsons. As much as I love this country, I for one am not going to wait for “America” to become perfect for black folks. My job for my household is to see to it that my kids are equiped to be the best that they can be.
What is so confusing about all of this is that when a person (like myself) sides with let’s say conservatism, and completely ditches the term black and just goes with American (which I do not), that person is ridiculed throughout the community as being as sellout and ashamed of their race. I believe Armstrong Williams took some heat for this (I could be wrong).
In the “few” years that I have been on this earth, the one thing that I have learned a long time ago is that in the black community, sadly you cannot have it both ways. I am completely with you that it is an American problem, but we cannot expect others to do what we can do for ourselves. I cannot tell you the mothers (who some of them happened to be poor and black) ask me to discipline their child because of a father who was not there. Some say that Cosby was being too hard on po’ folks, well I can point to a lot of po’ folks that will say he wasn’t hard enough. And you know what? It isn’t about being “hard”—its about caring enough to do something about it–including telling the whole truth.
You too take care of yourself and enjoy the weekend. Good chatting with you.
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