Dear Mr. CEO of America:
I grew up in a household where my parents were proud of their heritage, talked about Black history, and instilled a sense of pride in children that the world might overlook and undervalue. It has never taken any epiphany for me to celebrate my blackness. I have always loved who I am and I have always given thanks to my ancestors. I am proud.
Yes, African Americans are descended from slaves, Mr. CEO of America. But, shame would never corrupt that absolutely hurtful past. Shame is not an appropriate sentiment. Yes, I know it would suit you better if my people averted our eyes in your presence and spoke in hushed tones to avoid your ire. But, you are not a God and your workplace is not a holy institution.
My people survived the beatings, rapes, murders, forced labor…everything you could throw at us. We’ve come far based on strength, perseverance, forgiveness, and love. If you want to talk about a people having “testicular fortitude,” look no further than the faces of the survivors of the Black holocaust. Why should we defer to you, Mr. CEO of America? Why should we continue to let you demoralize us, underrate us, underpay us, and treat us like the dregs of society?
Your people have been running a good game on us. I’ll admit it. Willie Lynch knew what he was doing—knew how to screw with our heads. Hell, he even knew how to make us screw with the heads of our own offspring. Many of us are as your ancestors had desired. We’s good Negroes! Only too happy to smile.
But, ultimately, it doesn’t matter how much pride or shame or disgust or glee a Black person has about themselves and their race. Nothing changes the fact that you seem to think you’re running a plantation and that “certain” folks under your employ are your slaves.
Yes, Mr. CEO of America, Massa’s folks can be seen toiling beside us colored folks in the workplace. But, Whites often don’t work under the same conditions or with the same standards and expectations as Black employees. So, don’t try to run that game. You know you look out for your peeps! And, the benefits you give to the half-retarded, socially dysfunctional White boy, who has worked beside a person of color and taken credit for the Black person’s work, is often far in excess of what that so-called minority will ever receive from you. You’ve been doing us wrong!
I’ll be honest. Your “cousin” got me good, Mr. CEO of America. Your boy went hard core! He did his thing. And, I had to leave my job. My blood pressure went right through the roof and my hair was falling out.
Your boy changed me, Mr. CEO of America. He attacked my character, work performance, and job security. For me, my reputation is something that I don’t play around with. So, to be maligned and slandered through a corporate spin machine and to be turned into an object of hate, ridicule, and scapegoating was enough to send me over the edge. The hardest thing for me to cope with was being falsely depicted as a caricature of BLACK RAGE based on someone else’s racist whims.
But, that’s the game that was played with my livelihood and my reputation. Just like a slave on a plantation, my name was devalued, I had no say in my future, I had no opportunity to provide a defense, and I was to have done to me what others saw as fit punishment. My whipping wasn’t physical, although the psychological abuse surely led to the scarring of my soul.
I have learned a level of hatred for another race of people that I never imagined could be a part of my persona. That hatred goes against the way I was raised and the fabric of my being.
I am fighting for the return of who I was. But, I also am fighting the corporation that thought I would avert my eyes and step to the side, so they could pass. Yes, your boy is going down, Mr. CEO of America. I am not a good nig_er! He got the wrong one. He thought he could give me an unheard of mid-year review, 9 months into the review year. He told me that everyone hated me, but he knew better than to put it in writing. He told me I wasn’t doing my job, when I was jugging multiple projects. He put a halt to the promotion that was promised to me. But, he should’ve asked somebody! I will fight. Did you hear me? He got the wrong one!
I am fighting until my last breath. And, the devil will get the loser. Somebody’s going “downstairs” when this all said and done. And, while I fight your boy, and all those who are like the two of you, I will be a productive member of my community. I’m going to write about you and your racist counterparts because people like you represent a plague. And, just like the plague wiped out masses in Europe, I’m going to work to eradicate you! I’m going to put you on display!
The strength of my people will be your demise. The spotlight on your reality will bring you down…in time. My people are patient. We’ll take you on…one person at a time. We will get stronger and we will challenge you. We will learn to track information and to compile evidence that will show you for what you really are. We will learn to demand the same pay you give your folks. The silence you’ve grown used to will not be golden much longer.
The clock is ticking…Mr. CEO of America. The Black Factor will work to make sure that your time runs out!
Wishing I Could Wish You Well (But, I Can’t),
S. Mary Wills
http://www.theblackfactor.blogspot.com
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