Jig Dancin' for Dollas

From the time I was a child I was taught about the importance of doing well in school so I could grow up and "get a good job". So during my educational endeavors I always tried to picture myself as a gainfully employed "fill in the blank". Whatever I imagined involved me wearing a business suit and carrying a briefcase on my way to my job at Snoozeville Incorporated. As a child these imaginings seemed normal. I figured it was what all grown ups did because I never saw or heard of any other option.

Now I am in my mid-thirties. I've had "good job" after "good job" and have been miserable on every last one of them. My saving grace arrived two years ago when it occurred to me what I really wanted to do. That knowledge lead me to return to school and now I have a definite plan. Though I am very excited about my future, there have been plenty of naysayers who are caught up in what I like to call the "good job mentality".

As a state worker I am supposedly afforded health care at a reasonable cost, a fairly stable job (despite over a year and a half of furloughs), and a decent retirement providing every last cent of those funds do not evaporate by the time I'm sixty two. And while this job is alright for now, I know my purpose and it doesn't end with me retiring from this place twenty five years from now. For some reason when I tell black folks of my plan to leave the state in about two years, they become bug-eyed, throw up their hands, and say, "You can't quit 'yo good job"! I can't even begin to express how disgusted this makes me or how disheartening it is to know that my own people can't see my vision. I completely understand the importance of job security and the paramount nature of saving for retirement and I would never be stupid enough to just leave a job with no plan in place. However, there is more to me and in me than what I'm doing now and my purpose cannot be found anywhere in this place.

For years our fears and self-imposed limitations as black folks have kept us from taking the risks necessary to reach our individual success. We are afraid to die and even more afraid to live. In between the two, we work crap jobs because that's what we've been taught to do. Though I'm sure the ancestors mean well, I firmly believe what we should be telling our children is "educate yourselves and create your OWN way". The time has come for us to stop stifling our own growth because we are afraid to jump off the ledge and fly. I don't think I'm better than anyone and I don't think I'm too good for this "good job"but I believe we should encourage one another's dreams and help one another reach them.

That said, I will NEVER tell any niece, nephew, or child of mine to get a "good job". I want the upcoming generations to aspire to be more than the status quo - even if that means leaving a really "good job".

You Darkies Need to LIghten Up

The other day on CNN I saw a story about the high school graduation rate for black boys being below 50%. I've read reports about the disparity in pay and promotion in the workplace between whites and blacks. I know the housing market demise mostly effected people who look like me and I know I still have to operate under a different set of rules in the professional arena because there is an expectation of me being ignorant, unprepared, and incompetent. Knowing all these things doesn't keep me from having a sense of humor. If anything, my amusement levels have gone up because most times I have to laugh to avoid a mental breakdown. Nonetheless, I maintain a status of equal parts laughter, rage, and struggle because I cannot in good conscious ignore all that ails people who look like me.

After reading the transcript of Laura Schlessinger losing her mind with a black caller who called about dealing with racism from the friends of her white husband the other day, I considered many of the things she said during her bigoted rant. One thing that stuck out for me was her telling the black female caller that if she couldn't take a joke, she didn't need to be in an interracial relationship. I mean, why should one still get angry every time she is discriminated against based on race, addressed with racial slurs, or disrespected because she isn't white? What exactly do YOU PEOPLE want? Shouldn't the fact that she's "in" with the white crowd based on her husband's whiteness help her get over all her silly feelings of racial oppression? Well, Laura, I have to say the answer is a resounding HELL NO.

Tiring of the negative assumptions, stupid questions (How often do black people wash their hair? If that your real hair? What does "junk in the trunk mean"? Don't you just love that Barack Obama?), and stereotypical beliefs about black folks, Jade reached out to someone she thought could provide a morally sound piece of advise. Instead, she was insulted, attacked, and made to feel as if her feelings were unwarranted by yet another one of those people who insists that black folks are really just too uptight about this whole "race thing". I mean, we have a black president now which means America is no longer a racist place, shouldn't you people be happy? Again, Laura, I have to say, NO.

Though I will always maintain my pride and God given joy, I will NEVER sit in satisfaction as long as young black boys are dropping out of high school at an alarming rate, threats are being made against the man elected President simply because his whiteness has been entwined with black DNA, and young black women are walking around believing the hype that they are irrelevant and fit to be nothing more than some man's punching bag or ho. You see, it's hard to lighten up when one's reality can be so dark. It's hard to behave as if all is well when there are those who seek to destroy every good thing one has just because they can. So beneath the smiles and laughter remain agony. Behind the jokes lurks the rage and it is dark- just like my skin.

Now That's Using Your Noodle

Times are hard. I've heard that phrase ever since I was a little girl but didn't really understand its meaning until I became an adult who had to pay her own way. With the current economic status of this country, I now find myself using the phrase all the time. I know people who have been laid off after years of service to an employer. I have coworkers who have lost their homes and I am among a plethora of my contemporaries who now find robbing Peter to pay Paul a part of daily existence. Yeah, it's definitely rough out there.

I find the situation is most noticeable when I'm in the grocery store. When I write my list I am always thinking about how I can get the most food for the least amount of money and what dishes I can cook that will last a minimum of 3-5 days. In keeping with the more bang for my buck goal, I often travel down the same aisles each month. A few days ago I noticed something very telling about how American's pockets are being emptied by this crisis; the noodle aisle was sparse. Boxes had been emptied and turned over, noodle remnants were all over the floor, and there was a large crowd of shoppers congregating around the remains. Knowing the flavor of Top Ramen and its copycats, I can't imagine those people were gathered there for the decadent taste explosion that is the cheap noodle. Instead, these people were on the noodle aisle as a means of surviving.

With pay cuts, furloughs, a diminishing job market, and rising costs in housing, it is no wonder we've been reduced to using the ramen noodle as a culinary staple. I know things are bad when even peanut butter and jelly has become a delicacy. It all makes me wonder how long I'll have to live this ramen existence and what the "better" version of this current situation will look like. In the meantime, I'll keep the water boiling.

Hon! Can You Get Me a Sandwich?

On a recent Saturday I was enjoying an afternoon of cartoons. After about half an hour, I noticed a disturbing pattern in the commercials. For little boys there were commercials about monster trucks, muscular action figures, and things that explode. Little boys were shown throwing their heads back and giggling or making the sound effects that only little boys make when in the thick of playtime. It was all fun and games until the the commercials aimed at little girls aired. Toy ovens, little vacuum cleaners, and babies who could really cry and pee were advertised to appease little princesses. I kept watching hoping that at some point there would be a commercial for Ivy League, Presidential, or Business Suit Barbie, but that never happened. The whole experience got me thinking about the way we are trained to believe what our roles are from early on and how those assumptions can ultimately be a detriment to us as adults.

Based on what I saw that day, I feel it safe to assume that the message sent to our kids early on is that the role of boys is to play while girls are supposed to pick up the boys' toys and cook post-recreation snacks in a tiny oven heated by a light bulb. While Little Tommy is making his volcano explode and fighting imaginary wars with his superhero action figures, Little Susie is in the back room wearing an apron, pushing her baby mop, and trying to stop the crying of her ever peeing baby. As it is in kid land, so it is in adulthood.

Though many of us are much more evolved than what was implied by the advertising I saw, there are many who still subscribe to the implied theory that men make messes and women serve to clean them up. In adult television programming the husband is often a selfish, immature oaf who is always getting into trouble and the wife is a homemaking saint who rules with an iron fist (the other hand is used to dust something). This premise comes from somewhere and I am now convinced that place is childhood. Despite what appears to be a dire existence, I am convinced there is hope. That hope starts with teaching our children their REAL roles; those of self-sufficient, responsible, fair-minded, humans with integrity. Once we implement this theory, our boys will know they don't have to be limited to living as a silly man who does nothing but make trouble for his wife and our little girls will know their adult existence doesn't have to be spent at the beck and call of a man who "underappreciates" her greatness.

I am sure I won't have a job in advertising but I will have a hand in helping to mold the minds of my future children, nieces, and nephews. It is time we stop limiting our children based on gender and start encouraging them to move beyond the dribble we pass off as gender roles.

Chicken, Watermelon, and What Not

A few weeks back I went out for sushi with an old friend. While taking advantage of the 99 cent saki bombs, he decided to be generous and buy one for the stranger sitting next to us. After we toasted the man thanked my friend for the drink and asked what we were having. My friend told him since he's a regular and the chef experiments and makes him "surprises". I told him I wasn't a sushi fan and was opting for chicken instead. The man shook his head disapprovingly and said, "Well, that's what you people do. You're always eating chicken and watermelon". Wanting desperately to avoid assault charges and a trip to the county jail, we instead opted for open mouths indicating shock and mild chiding. Somehow I just couldn't see this one dummy being worth the trouble and high cost of legal fees (particularly without the privilege of being able to call the late, great Johnny Cocoran for back up).

After calming down, the incident made me think about all this crazy talk about a "post racial America". I looked it up on Google Maps, Mapquest, and even the foremost authority on all things; Wikipedia, but could find no information on the coordinates of this magical land. It seems just as elusive and mythological as the unicorn we all wished we could see as children. It is beyond naive for anyone to suddenly think the nomination of a half black president in these United States is the cure all for the institution of racism that has ailed us since the founding of this nation. Crosses haven't stopped burning, cops haven't stopped pulling over young black men who appear too smart, too hood, too affluent, or too confident as a way to satisfy their weekly "harass a nigga" quotas, and the housing, banking, and lending industries have not suddenly become level playing fields for blacks and other people of color. So, what exactly is this "post racial" utopia of which everyone has been speaking? If anything, the nomination of Barack Obama has only served to strengthen the resolve of those who would destroy black Americans if only given the chance.

Post election I've had more discussions on race with negative end results than ever before. I have found myself the brunt of blunt racial discrimination more often. My work place has become more racially charged and I am constantly being asked questions about the actions of the President in a ridiculous exercise in tokenism. And despite my anger at it being assumed I am some type of "Obamist" with all the answers on Barack and every other black person in the public eye, I still feel the need to speak up in the most dire situations because I feel we are often so misrepresented in every public arena.

The more I take the time to look around me, the more I am convinced of the impending arrival of a race war of epic proportions. Racists are mad as hell the President of "their" great nation is one of my fellow fried chicken and watermelon eating darkies and they aren't going to stand for it for too long. Words like "socialist" and "liberal" and phrases like, "I want my country back" are not pleas for peace in America, folks. These are covert attempts at describing the despair, disgust, and helplessness racists feel at the hands of a black world leader. These people won't just go around protesting and holding their misspelled signs for long. At some point more aggressive action will be taken and all Americans of color need to be prepared. This isn't something that can be fixed with a bomb shelter and a two year supply of Chef Boyardee. This is psychological warfare than can only be battled with the weapon of intellect. So, black folks, wake up. We are nowhere near a post racial America. We are nowhere near a country in which we can coexist peacefully and respectfully or hold hands and sing. And though this truth is ugly, it is real. We must put down the watermelon, turn off the deep fryer, and prepare for mental fisticuffs because this thing is not going away any time soon.

I'll Cut Ya!

Lately I've been avoiding the local news like a copy of the Watchtower but tonight I got sucked in. The first story of the evening was about three school districts in northern California that are laying off teachers, office workers, and custodial staff in the next three weeks. As I watched the wife of a soon to be unemployed custodian and thirty year school district employee cry and talk about how after all these years his take home pay is only about 22k, I thought about the future of our children and the Wall Street employees who are home sitting on a deck with a glass of fine wine while enjoying the fruits of my bailout money.

Surely this can't be right. How is it a bank can be too big to fail but we don't think of our children in the same way? Our young people are too RELEVANT to fail yet the more economically challenged our country becomes the more interest there seems to be in saving the necks of the haves. Who will have anything in the future if our children don't receive the quality foundational education needed to thrive? While parents in these districts may have to find new schools for their children to attend because of school closures, some seflish prick from Bear Stearns is preparing to send his child to some overpriced Ivy League school. I'm unable to close my eyes and convince myself that any of this is right.

People are constantly complaining about unruly, uncultured, uneducated, and uncouth children running about with no direction. We fuss when we see them crowding the malls and disturbing our shopping experiences (at least, I do). We shake our heads and roll our eyes when we see our young girls pregnant or our young boys standing on corners investing in lifetime careers in nothingness yet we stand by and watch our educational system, one of the few things that can actually serve to save our children, be destroyed due to greed and manipulation. Where are our priorities?

Teachers who help foster the academic growth of those who end up as Wall Street workers don't even make a third of what these fat cats receive in bonuses let alone annual income. However teachers are losing their homes, cars, and jobs due to no fault of their own. It disturbs me that we live in a society that goes to cuts of the most valuable services before considering the long term impact on our future. These cuts to our educational budget will only lead to our children "cutting up" or not making the cut when it comes time to apply for a decent college to attend. The last I checked, cuts of any kind have served no purpose other than to hurt.

Tryin' To Get It Write

I just completed my first of what feels like a million courses in my pursuit for an undergraduate degree. I wasn't naive enough to think that it would be easy, but I was just green enough to think I'd actually still have time for a personal life. Unfortunately, instead of a life of part time chillin' and part time schoolin', I've spent the past five weeks attached to my laptop or staring intently at my work pc trying to decipher the other people's crazy talk while attempting to write some of my own. I had classmate drama, encountered countless illiterates, and contemplated paying the price for a plane ticket that would get me to the right town to slap my learning team mate. In the midst of all this drama, the time I usually spend writing was taken up by a mandatory evil. I jotted down subjects I wanted to blog about but never seemed to have one good moment to sit down and type. Lack of writing for my much needed release was definitely beginning to take its toll on me. It all changed when I got some advice from someone dear to me. He told me not to let school stand in the way of my education. At first I thought, "Oh boy, another cliche for me to file away and never use again", but almost as soon as I tried to poo poo his words, they resonated with me. I really spent five weeks of my life so focused on something I had to do that I failed to make time for the thing that I WANT to do. Writing keeps me sane, sharpens my imagination, and releases my tension. Instead of writing for pleasure, I've been spending all of my time writing in order to be able to check a box. The words he spoke reminded me that school is not the only thing that is important. Though it will definitely help me in my future, writing is what continues to help me today. I'm back.