Common Ground

So I spent the weekend trying to be a community organizer. It gave me new respect for Barack. It's hard to sit and talk about issues with people that don't have the same values and concerns as you. Common ground. Is there really any? Not much that I could find. A friend was trying to explain institutional racism to me. She quoted a letter to the editor in our local paper written by a black woman. This writer spoke of growing up black and having to always be aware of what size handbag she carried when going into a store. My friend told me that as a white woman, she had never had to think about it. Lucky her. I know my wife has thought about it. A couple of weeks ago we were in Atlanta for one of my eye appointments. A neighbor recommended a restaurant. Parking was bad, forcing us to a parking garage. We had to walk through Saks Fifth Avenue to get to and from. Coming from, we had a large bag containing desert for later that night. When we passed through Saks, a large black man in a suit walked over to us and looked into our bag, then walked away. He was doing his job. We and a young black couple pushing a baby stroller then got into the elevator and left.
I was reading Leonard Pitts the other day. He was ranting about the death of a young girl. She was caught in the crossfire. It seems they named a park after her. They should have named a jail instead. Then filled it with her killers. Leonard called the black community weak for not having seen anything. I wrote him and told him it wasn't weakness it was stupidity. It is my opinion that black people are raised up to fail by their own people. The ones that don't accept this teaching, or are taught to expect success for their hard work are the ones that succeed.
What about discrimination? Does it exist? Yes. It exists in all forms toward all people. I myself was turned down for a promotion once because of my eyesight. I was not hired at other places for the same reasons, and told these things to my face. What did I do? I kept knocking on doors til someone answered. I went to school and got good grades. I learned to outwork the competition.
Should Sherondric be judged the same as Jim? You bet! Is he? Likely not. When I named my children I remember thinking about what effect their names might have on them. Ruth was almost something else for fear that it might make her a target. It is stupid to name your kid something that will be a strike against them from the start. We all know about the baby Adolph Hitler Campbell.
Do people discriminate when hiring? Absolutely. Can you overcome it? Absolutely. Find someone that wants your talent. My wife hired the best person for the job when she needed someone. This included a black woman, and an Asian man. Business wants people that can do the job, not people that look like me. Will racism ever go away?
Don't axe me, cause fo shizzle I don't know.