When did the demand for equal treatment for the black community become a demand for undeserved handouts for black people? Time and time again I have witnessed the automatic rejection of any call for a semblance of equal opportunity for blacks dismissed as little more than black people wanting a handout or special treatment. Make a statement that companies are woefully lacking in diversity and people who want to protect white privilege roll their eyes with mock exaggeration and recite stereotypical rhetoric refusing to give the subject any serious consideration. Therefore, it can only be concluded that the dominant culture feels that the equal treatment of black people would be giving the black community treatment that is not deserved. The only treatment black people deserve is subjugation. This type of thinking is in and of itself is racially discriminatory and should be a concern for everyone, black and white.
Many people on both sides of the racial fence argue that black people do not deserve equal status or the benefit of doubt because, overwhelmingly, for whatever reason we may wish to give collectively or individually, circumstances prove that obviously black people are more likely not as qualified as their obviously white counterparts. Although I vehemently disagree with this assumption, whether or not it is justifiable is not even remotely the issue here. The question at this time is what consideration does the black individual who has earned his or her degree, who has taken the steps necessary to garner experience, who has made the sacrifices in their life for long term goals instead of immediate gratification, who has the raw natural talent, and/or who has jumped through all the hoops necessary to prove that they are more than capable for an opportunity, deserve?
A large portion of our culture is quite comfortable dismissing the supremely qualified black candidate as nothing more than one of the stereotypical woefully prepared candidates that we as a society have come to believe to be the only product of the black community. Our only evidence for our supposition will be the color of their skin. When we as a collective see the black candidate in line for an opportunity all too often they are dismissed without so much as a glance at his or her real qualifications. The dismissal of the black candidate is justified by the overwhelming statistics pulled out of someone’s ass that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt for many people that, generally speaking, black people are in many ways inferior to white people with respect to ethics, criminal behavior, intelligence, loyalty, perseverance, and any other way a comparison can be made. Many people don’t have a problem with this form of racial exclusion. But how fair is this exclusion to the black candidate who does have the personal strength to be more than what stereotypes say is the dominant culture’s definition of black people?
Even if people believed all the stereotypes they cannot believe it holds true for every single black person that exists. People who think black people are generally inferior to white people will suggest that black people be more like some black person who has transcended their expectations of black people. People will display this type of thinking with such less than helpful comments like black people should be more like some wildly successful black skinned American icon that somebody took a chance on and gave them an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities. As blessed as Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan are these days they didn’t get to where they are by themselves. They had the good fortune to have someone give them an opportunity to do a job that they were obviously qualified to do. It would have been very easy for someone to just dismiss these and the other famous black icons as little more than typical black people based on the color of their skin. But somebody wanted to look past that single characteristic for some reason or another.
The real issue here is are we as a society comfortable with the fact that we allow the black people who do meet the standards for opportunities to be dismissed and minimized because of race fueled prejudices? Some of us say black people need to go to school. I would have to agree. But what happens when the black person who has been to school applies for a job and is dismissed because somebody thinks black people are uneducated and they need to go to school? What happens when the black person with years of experience under their belt applies for a job and is dismissed because of the assumption that as a whole, black people don’t have as much experience as white people?
Even if all the racial stereotypes about black people were true doesn’t the person applying for the job deserve the same exact consideration as any other person? Even if it was a matter of fact that black people are generally inferior what if the black candidate right before you was the exception? Nobody would know unless that person is given a chance. It’s not the racist stereotypes that are the problem. It is the fact that so many people, black and white, are willing to base their decisions on those stereotypes without giving the black candidate a fair chance to prove the stereotype doesn’t apply here. In this were the case, black people will compete fairly and prevail accordingly. But when we tolerate the dismissal of the black person before he or she is given a chance to prove that the racial stereotypes are falsely applied we allow artificial restrictions to keep our black population from competing fairly.
Racially biased stereotypes are not the problem. People’s willingness to make decisions based on nothing more than racially biased stereotypes is what keeps the black community from competing fairly. Allowing black people to compete fairly is not a handout. It is only fair.
brotherpeacemaker,
I applaud your thoughtful and incisive comments. I’ve worked as a recruiter, diversity recruiter and diversity manager for many years and let me tell you, those negative assumptions about us getting a ‘hand out’ are alive and well in today’s marketplace. I can’t tell you how many hateful emails I’ve received in response to my company setting up networking groups for blacks, latinos, GLBT and people w/disabilities. “Why should these people get a group when white people don’t have one?” is the refrain I hear time and time again. When I politely tell them that these groups have historically been underrepresented and the networking groups help us to attract and retain the best talent, they are even more enraged. No matter how many trainings we do on demonstrating the business case for diversity, show how a diverse workforce positively impacts the bottom line, promotes more crativity and innovation, all the other myraid reasons why diversity works, the quiet yet permeating disdain for equality still exists. I believe that many whites subconciously do not want to relinquish their privilege in American society. The false notion that all people have access to the same opportunities in essence absolves white people from addressing the historical remnants of institutional and informal discrimination white men have perpetrated on racial and ehtnic groups. Any efforts at remediation acknowledges past wrong, which many are so unwilling to do. But I will keep fighting the good fight, the work of diversity and inclusion is a critical element to the future success of many African Americans who are not looking for a handout, but access to opportunity.
Diversity Champion, thank you for your perspective. It makes much sense. Its baffling how they have a reflexive desire to keep us down and try to tell us how to properly address our concerns – to them. If we don’t say it right, we’re looking for a handout.
Excellent and thank you.
Wow! This is so interesting. Just the other week at my job of predominantly white employees a white superior informed me and others, while we were all conversing, that it is unfair how difficult it is for her daughter to get scholarships and aid, but black students receive funding for “Just being black!” Mind you this is a historically white institution. I had to inform her that yes although black students receive minority grants the majority of money spent by the university for student aid is not given to black students. It is only a fraction of the overall aid that is offered, and a small fraction at that. She went on to explain how she just “feels” affirmative action is unfair, she asks “Why should anyone receive preferential treatment based on the color of their skin?” says the white woman. I was amazed, and forced to reply “Well excuse me mam, you benefit every single day in every single way from just being white!” You are in a high ranking position at a University, and do not even have a degree, all because you are afforded benefits for being white.
I know how the whites feel, and it sucks but I expect it so it doesn’t bother me as much. Yet, it is the unexpected preferential treatment given to whites by blacks that amaze me. The blacks that are plagued with this inferiority complex that presume that white is automatically right, and for that matter perceived better are the ones that catch me off guard and hurt me the worst. We must get beyond this thought process as a people. I received my degree, and am now working on a master’s and still am feeling like as a black female in 2008 that is still not enough education for the white man. I still will not have proven myself adequate or qualified enough to enter their workforce, so sadly on to Ph.D, 100’s of thousands of dollars in loans, a life-time of paying them off, and quite possibly still considered trailing behind in this rat race called the jacked up American dream for me!
Entrepreneurship is promoted to black folk, so that whites don’t have to compete.
Change The Game!
O.k. so you walk into a room full of poker players and get in on the game. However, you notice that no matter what you do, your stack of chips dwindles with every game. Not only that but every time you win a little playing by the rules next thing you know the rules have changed and you lose again.
This is the perpetual dilemma of African Americans in this rigged game called the American dream. Even when you have your degree, or several as MyVersion states a plain and painful truth, it is not and never will be enough. The game is rigged. For all the smiley faced, superficial liberalism of some white Americans, the underlying reality is that these people carry heavy burdens of guilt about us, fear us in a competitive way [with good cause I might add] and will do anything to propped up the economic advantages that give the pay advantages of up to 60% over black, brown and yellow workers. America is their game. This country was named after an Italian “explorer” Amerigo Vespucci. This continent belongs to the indigenous people who now live on ‘reservations’.
When you know the truth about it, to continue to try and make a crooked game work positively for you is absurd and only leads to compromising your own integrity. To play in a crooked game, with crooked rules will ultimately force you to become crooked as well. If not then you remain the perpetual loser.
Entrepreneur-ism is by far a better choice for African Americans. We have genetic trader instincts. We are innovators par excellent. But until we create our own nation, among ourselves, with equitable rules and protection for even the least educated among us, until we capture our gigantic collective economy and focus the power of it, we will remain victims of the fear and the racism. This is not a matter of segregation from America. It is a matter of becoming as a group, independent of the wishy-washy altruism of a criminal state. It is a matter of dealing with the facts without the rose-colored glasses.
African America commands well over a trillion dollars of the American economy. We number 39 million people. Of course, the numbers are very likely far more on both counts since many, many of us pay little or no attention to census data gatherers and are not even counted. Our economy extends far beyond what is documented in Nielsen and other economic data because much of what, when, where and how we spend money doesn’t appear on radar.
Yet we remain vulnerable to ripoff by bank scamming our checking & savings accounts with the $32.50 overdraft scam-
We remain redlined for credit and property valuation-
We suffer incursions into our communities by armed men who drag us into the criminal justice/modern equivalent of enslavement and lose decades of our lives, if not all of our lives for ‘offenses’ too trivial to justify such severe penalty.
We are systematically being rounded up and driven out of neighborhoods and housing the moment that ground becomes attractive for some big developer.
African American men and women must, in this decade, read the handwriting on the wall. It is time to create our nation. It is time to take all the talent, skill and economic power we have to change the game.
No, equal treatment is not a handout. Power is not given. As long as African Americans continue to buy from companies with discriminatory hiring policies, as long as we continue to bank with institutions like Citi-Corp and others who routinely discriminate against African Americans and black people globally [You can't walk into a CitiCorp bank center and exchange Haitian currency, yet Citi has a major banking presence in Haiti]; as long as we remain divided by shades of color, education, religion and other superficial, artificial divisions, we will remain victims of the ugliness we experience.
The current sub-prime debacle is now stripping the wealth of middle and upper middle class African Americans. Why? Because too many home buyers failed to see the trap set in Adjustable Rate Mortgages. Now, if you accept, that I can arbitrarily adjust interest rates on your home loan, what am I most likely to do? Adjust the down, so you keep more of your money, or UP because I want more of your money? It hasn’t mattered that the African Americans being affected have degrees and good jobs, are law abiding citizens and send their kids to college. It hasn’t mattered one bit when Multi-national corporations flee the worker protective, ecology protective countries to go fleece India or Indonesia, or China or Africa.
Change comes about by first accepting the facts. The first fact African America has to accept is that until we take responsibility for creating our communities, we will be rounded up and driven off, until we create our own companies and hire our own, we will stand outside the gate and wait for affirmative action to let us in. Until we stop making our enemies rich by buying their products when we know better, we will continue to face ever more powerful, infinitely more sophisticated methods to mask enslavement.