Obama and change…what it means for businesses
So Obama has won. What does this mean for businesses across the USA? What does it mean for the world in general?
Honestly I don’t know. The problems facing the president-elect are too complex for any single man to fix. Maybe life will improve during his term in office. Maybe the economy will completely fall flat. I just don’t know.
But that’s not what I want to talk about. This blog posting is more of a personal note.
There was a time decades ago when people didn’t assume every black man to be a criminal, thug, or gangster. The recent two decades of media stereotyping has had much to do with people thinking the worst of unknown black men. It’s as if the public imagines every one of us grew up in some part of east LA. People assume we each speak with a southern drawl. And carry a gat Or two. Heck, I had to look the word up. I thought gat was spelled gatt. Shows what I know.
Anyhow, I fail to fit imagined stereotypes. I can’t rap (can’t stomach most of it), can barely dance, don’t care for fried foods and have never been arrested or jailed or even handcuffed – though I have been pulled over about two dozen times in my life. I have even been searched once as a teenager.
All for no reason.
My white friends can’t imagine this to be true since they’ve never experienced being stopped while just driving, walking, jogging, bike riding, or while just sitting in their cars waiting for their kids to get out of school soon as the bell rings — despite the streets being crowded with other parents. I have.
Though I’ve never been in trouble with the law, have no unsightly scars and don’t even walk ‘black’…complete strangers still act threatened by me. They fear me. Not just me. But black men in general.
How can I tell? Here’s just one example.
Women in grocery stores switch their purses to the opposite side of their bodies or run to their unattended shopping carts when I enter their aisle…as if someone really would steal their unpaid for groceries. Give me a break.
And it’s not just in stores that people stereo-type me. I have experienced it online too. ‘I only requested your materials to see what an arrogant black man thinks he can teach me about business,’ was a reply I received anonymously on one of my web forms.
Arrogance is so not me.
I am one of the most soft-spoken and least confrontational people I know — of any race. To read such a comment is offensive. Especially seeing how the person who sent the reply didn’t know anything about me and admitted hadn’t so much as read or reviewed any of my materials yet. He just saw my picture on my home page and immediately clicked my contact form and shot off a rude comment to me.
So for a while after that I chose to ‘hide’ my identity online. I deleted images of me from all of my sites. Instead I let my words and abilities do the selling for me.
Was usually ok. Troubles sometimes popped up when I’d meet folks in person who I had previously only spoken with by phone. I could see the shock on their faces when I’d walk in and introduce myself. They assumed I was white from talking to me. [Ok. I admit it. In some perverse sort of way I kind of enjoyed seeing the surprise]
Oh. A while back a business owner called me after having first called a black, female professional. He had no clue what I looked like. During the call with me he kept going on and on that people like ‘us’ (him and me) are better than ‘her’ and her kind. I told him I was black too. He called me a liar. He said I didn’t sound black. Then he started making comments about my supposed ‘better’ upbringing that allows me not to sound black. I ended the call.
The point is, I don’t fit the description of what the MTV-generation believes a black man is ’supposed’ to look, sound, or act like. So people are thrown off by it.
But now that Obama has been elected president of the USA, I imagine [I may be wrong here], people won’t have a knee-jerk reaction of ‘never mind, he’s black…’ when dealing with me.
This is no exaggeration.
About a decade ago I actually heard that comment. I was in the administrative office of what was then a large multimillion dollar company. I had left something behind and returned to pick up my materials. The two staff members upstairs didn’t know I had returned. When they turned around after having made that comment they were visibly shocked. Tried to back slide out of the ‘never mind he’s black’ comment.
They thought they were commenting in secret. They weren’t. They ended up with egg on their faces. And I ended up with a different view of ‘reality’.
Fortunately for them few people will ever know of their prejudice comment.
But there are other people though who’ve made more visible, more public fools of themselves. Check out some of these comments and backsliding about Obama’s blackness.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not into politics at all [oh, how oh-so un-American]. But I am interested in tracking how politics and political changes in general affect businesses large and small. So I can continue to help business owners.
The thing is, I view politics the same as I see religion.
I recognize it’s there. I respect everyone’s right to decide what they want to do. But on the other hand I feel religion is tolerable only up until it encroaches on the rights of others or breaks the law. Same with government. Obey the laws of the land, pay taxes, and also do what I can to help my fellow man on a personal and individual level. But beyond that, I leave politics to the politicians.
I am optimistic about the change of presidents for one reason and it is this…
It’s socially cool to be black. Again.