Uncle Ruckus

(Originally Posted January 12th, 2007)

I just got a new job about a month and a half ago, and I love it. It isn't exactly what I want to do as far as a career, but it keeps me busy and allows me to fully concentrate on the career that I want. I work for this Fortune 300 Company as an accounting assistant. I mail off invoices, do a lot of data entry, sort and send off mail, and do quite a bit of filing. It's a complete 180 from teaching, but I love this more than any other job (so far) than I ever had. Why? Because I'm working with white folks.

Yeah, yeah…I know what you are thinking: why does she like working with white folks after all that talk about saving African Americans, building up African American communities, and promoting the African American business? I am still a serious proponent of African American owned and run businesses, but there are a few things (based on my experiences with African American run companies/businesses) that some of them need to work on.

Now, not to say that white folks don't gossip, that would be a fallacy and a generalization. But at the company that I work at, I come in, sit at my desk, do my work and no one comes to ask me about my man, my bills, who I do like, who I don't like, why so-and-so hair looked the way it did, or why he and she are sleeping together. At this white folks company that I am at now, it's business. They understand that I don't like to talk about personal things and they are fine with that. Also, they don't try to pry things out of me or spread rumors about anything personal about me or make up lies about what I do while at work to get me fired. Not to say that they won't, but it hasn't happened.

While I worked at four African American schools and businesses over the last three and a half years, I've had bosses spread completely untrue rumors about me to the businesses that I worked at in order to get me to quit. Despite the fact that I was one of the reasons why they even dealt with my boss's company, she still proceeded to say derogatory and slanderous things about me. I've worked for schools that had administrative staff not talk to me or even be cordial in return to my morning greetings because I didn't agree with some of their leadership skills or because I didn't go out with them after work. I was never the type to fraternize with my co-workers; I felt as if things might happen that I don't want known by my boss or other co-workers that could be used against me. So, I've always shied away from it. But, I feel as if I shouldn't have to feel as if my job is being threatened if I don't go out with my boss and her crew.

My new job had an after work get together just the other day. They didn't force me to go, didn't make me feel as if I would lose my job if I didn't go, and were fine when I politely (like I always do) refused. They understood, went on about their business, and came back to work the next day with a "good morning" and an attitude of business as usual. I just wish that many of these African American business owners could get some of their acts together and realize that just because we look alike doesn't mean that we have to disclose all of our personal secrets and talk about everyone else around us. Going to work means going to work. Talking about a television show or something that is politically and/or economically important to African Americans as a whole is acceptable conversation (to me) at work; but once it dives over into the intimate details of one's life outside of work and turns into a story that is bigger and more important than that tasks that need to be done at work, then I got issues.

I've worked in many choice schools over the years. And I understand that there is a bit of red tape that is involved in getting money from the state and can appreciate the fact that many choice schools have to work hard in order to get the money that they need and deserve to pay their employees. But then, you work with some people that just don't know what it is that they are doing with their money and are reluctant to help you if your check is messed up.

At my new job that I had been working at for about a month and a half, one of my checks were short about 5 hours of overtime pay, which actually only turned out to be about 30 dollars. I called the corporate office of the temp service that I'm working for and alerted them to the problem and they told me that they would call me back after they looked into the situation. I then emailed my boss and told him the situation just in case he needed to talk to corporate about my hours. He then emailed me back saying that if I needed to he could dip into petty cash and give me some money to hold me off until next week. He never asked how much I needed or how long it would take for me to pay it back; he just offered it to me.

While I worked at one of those choice schools, there was problem with our checks being late. Now, I knew that we had to wait a month for our checks because of the way that the state dispersed checks to choice schools. But, the problem that I had with them is the fact that we had to go to the bank that the schools paychecks were on in order to get our money because other banks wouldn't honor them. Hell, even check cashing places wouldn't honor their checks. And, if you couldn't cash your check at the bank that the check was written on, don't even THINK about going back to your boss because more than likely you weren't getting any help or sympathy from them. They just told you that it was a problem with the way the state dispersed the money and that they would get back to you whenever they could. Or, you'd have to wait until the next dispersement. If they would have just been upfront, honest, and a bit sympathetic about the needs of their workers, I wouldn't be upset. I guess it's the fact that they handled the matter the way that they did and made sure that they were paid and had no concern for others was what made me pretty reluctant about working with African Americans. And made me love working for white folks just a wee bit more.

Now I know that working with African American folks means having a little bit more patience because more often than not they are being screwed over by entities larger than themselves: the government, banks, and other financial institutions for example. And, because of that, I have to understand that many times when they are unable to make due with what they have because of so many other things that are on their plates at the moment as far as bills are concerned. But, that doesn't give them the right to hold out paying a worker for their 80 hours a paycheck that they deserve to get. It also doesn't give them a right to be unsympathetic because those who are in charge of giving them the money to give to their employees were unsympathetic with them, especially if those employees were loyal to the company from the start and continued to stay with them for as long as they needed to.

I love my people. I would never change my line of African American people for all of the money in the universe. But, I would like to see many of them change their ways when they work with people that look like them and not treat them like shit just because they DO look like them.

Uncle Ruckus, I don't know about white people smelling like lemon Pledge, but for now, until we realize that we are not our own enemy, I'd rather work with them than with some of my African American