I once read an editorial printed in a local newspaper on the “racism” of diversity. I have to admit that I was stunned by the title, then as I read the article I got angry, then had to take a step back. The overall idea of diversity at its core is that every person gets to have their point of view on something, no matter how abhorrent that stance might seem to someone like myself.

For the record, the point of the article at the time was directed at a case before the Supreme Count involving the University of Michigan and its admission policies as it pertains to attempting to have a diverse student population. The author of the editorial not only disagreed with this policy, which puts him in line with President Bush, but decided to go further in his denouncement of the ideals of diversity across the board.

The term “diversity” is suddenly becoming a word with a negative connotation, ala “liberal” in today’s society, and that’s not a good thing. Only those with no real clue as to the problems in the real world can really believe diversity is such a bad thing. What makes it better that every university, every company, every organization, whatever, is overloaded with one group over another? It made me wonder if the author was really racist himself or whether he was “under educated” as opposed to uneducated.

I am from what would be acknowledged as an official minority group. As someone with a little bit of history on the subject, I can assure folks that there isn’t anything close to a level playing field in this country. With the trials and tribulations I had as it regards my educational background in elementary school, high school, and college, I can honestly say that it prepared me for many things I would run into in the work world. I was able to persevere and advance, but each step up the ladder just reminded me of how much of an oddity I was. In the year 2011 and with at least 300 years of history behind us, being in a position where I still make so many lists of “the 1st” to do whatever is shocking to me.

There is a great aversion by some against Affirmative Action. What’s missed is that there is still a great need for the program. Companies have had the opportunity to do the right thing on their own, and have traditionally decided they didn’t really want to buck the status quo, and therefore have not hired always in the best interest of the company. Am I to believe that out of a company of over 200 employees there wasn’t a single minority applicant with the skills and background to be a valuable employee to that company? When it comes to unskilled labor, are we really to believe that there’s such a great difference between those who are considered in the majority and those considered in the minority?

The way I see things, those whose feelings are like that particular writer are ready to perpetuate the status quo. One reason I have had people tell me for the reasons they don’t have any minority representation in management is that there isn’t anyone with the skills needed to be promoted. Many of those companies have no minorities to begin with, so the point is moot. Just where are people supposed to get any skills or background needed to compete in today’s market?

College is a good start. What about quotas? Colleges have quotas anyway. There are set asides for students whose parents work at the university; there are set asides for students whose families give money to the university; there are set asides for people who live in a particular area (state universities have only a minimum number of slots for out of state students); there are set asides for veterans,… it goes on and on. I see nothing wrong with the policy at the University of Michigan because it has students in particular groups competing against others within their own categories for slots at the university. It’s not like U of M is taking people only in the order they happen to apply to the university.

Once this degree has been earned, minorities need the opportunities to get into companies just like everyone else. Of course their ideas will come from a different perspective, but ideas are what makes companies great in the first place. Someone had an idea and then either went with it or passed it on to someone else who put it all into place. And if this person had aspirations of moving up the ladder, they will do what is needed in order to attain the skills needed for consideration.

Al Campanis wasn’t necessarily wrong in 1987 when he said minorities didn’t have all the necessities to be considered for promotion; of course he was talking about baseball and he delivered his message incorrectly. The same applies to businesses in general. Companies need to offer the opportunity for minorities to attain the necessities so that they can advance.
 

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It’s Black History Month 2012 style, and this year I’m doing things a little bit different. In previous year’s posts I’ve talked about why the month is still needed and asked some questions that, frankly, were downers. This years I’m going to change some things up, as well as highlight the past.

via Flickr

First, let’s highlight the past. I’ve written a lot of posts over the years and two blogs on the specific topic of Black History Month. I thought I’d share all those posts here:

As Black History Month Winds Down…

Black History Month – Two Looks Backward

It’s Black History Month; What Do I Want?

Black History Month; The Last Day

Black History Month; I Didn’t Miss It

Black History Month; Why Don’t People Care More?

Black History Month – The Wind Down

Black History Month – Differences In People

Next, let’s talk about contribution. Last year, after awhile, I felt that it was time to contribute in some fashion after all the years of complaining. It all can’t be left up to President Barack Obama; he’s got his own issues to contend with. I decided it was time to highlight a group of people who get almost no press online, black bloggers and social media participants.

Being truthful, with all the things I’ve done online and people I’ve met I keep thinking that I might one day be included in one of those big time lists of online people trying to make a difference, but I realized that it’s not just me, but a host of other very qualified black people that are basically ignored or unknown by the masses, including, well, other black people. So, on my other blog, I started out with 8 black bloggers I didn’t think people knew about. That led to coming up with 21 black social media influencers and finally 29 more black social media influencers.

Not bad I’d say, especially since I’d have to admit that until I did the research I didn’t know 80% of them. But I thought about it and came into this year deciding it wasn’t enough. So two Fridays ago on that blog I started what I call Black Wed Friday, where each week for at least 6 months, hopefully through the end of the year, I’ll highlight websites by, dedicated to or for black people. The second Black Web Friday was last week, and there’s one today.

This is my contribution to not only Black History Month, but Black History year. I think black people online have been invisible for too long; this year, I try to make a difference. After all, isn’t that what taking a stand is all about?

This is where I do my leadership thing with diversity; what are you doing this year?
 

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Today is the holiday to celebrate once again the birthday of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. I don’t think I’ve ever said this before but every year this holiday comes up I think of how strange it is to have a holiday named after someone who was alive when I was alive. To me, it proves just how remarkable he really was.

As I was writing a newsletter some days ago on the subject of Dr. King and leadership, it seems that there’s so many things that people kind of missed about him and about the overall topic of equality. I kind of encountered that last week when I was visiting a blog where the topic of lists of top bloggers came up.

Once again I was dismayed not to see any black people on the list; there was one person of color, but that person wasn’t American. Actually, neither was the writer, but almost all the people on the list were American so that fact was negated.

I ended up having a conversation with that person, as well as the originator of the post, on why I feel it’s important to see a wider range of people listed in these types of lists. Whereas some might say I’m looking for a quota, there is no quota when there is no representation to begin with.

There’s also no equal opportunity for potential benefits of some of these lists without representation. For instance, CNN and other major outlets usually publish a list of top 25 or top 50 bloggers or people in social media once a year. Last year there wasn’t a single black person on the list; I can’t remember the year before but I think it was the same type of thing. What happens when major outlets print things like this is they link to those blogs, which benefits them in one way, and then people follow those links to see what they’re all about, and that benefits them in another way. These people gain more prominence, which can indirectly lead to monetary gain.

I also often read about these major blogging and social media conferences. Every once in awhile someone mentions that no black names were mentioned, and someone else responds it’s because almost no blacks attended, followed by there weren’t any, or almost no, black presenters at those conferences. That was actually something I myself experienced in November when I presented at a conference and was not only the one black presenter but one of very few black people there as well.

Dr. King uttered the words “content of one’s character” in his 1963 speech in Washington, the famous “I Have A Dream” speech, and it was a great one. I don’t think these days that the reality of exclusion is intentional, with the idea being to hold anyone down.

I believe it’s an idea of exclusion based on a kind of apathy. In essence, people don’t think about it when they come upon it. In one way it’s good because Dr. King hoped that people might be color blind in their daily dealings. In another it’s bad because it’s untrue; people aren’t as color blind as it’s believed. There was a response I got on that same blog post I referenced where a person said she didn’t believe there were any problems with race, that she was “sure” there were a lot of minority bloggers out there. However, she also admitted that she could only think of 2, neither being black or American; that didn’t bode well for her argument.

I don’t talk about these things because I’m radical necessarily. I talk about them because someone has to keep the topic alive. Someone besides Roland Martin, who writes a wonderful column for CNN that, if you read the comments, people don’t understand and certainly are missing both the point of what he writes and their own prejudiced beliefs, has to take a stand and say these things. Dr. King said “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

So I won’t stay silent, but I’m not going to beat anyone over the head with it either. As I looked back on 2011 I found that I didn’t write that many articles on the topic of diversity, and those I did write got almost no activity; people are kind of scared of diversity and race questions, it seems. So I share those here again as I end this post honoring the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr on the day this country celebrates his birthday in 2012, and if the Mayans aren’t correct hopefully I’ll be here to do the same thing again in 2013.

Will True Inclusion Ever Be Possible?

Black History Month – Two Looks Backward

As Black History Month Winds Down

Martin Luther King and Thurgood Marshall

The Ethics Of Exclusion

Why I Talk About Race

Intentional Unintentional Freudian Slips

When Racism Is Unhidden

Content Of One’s Character – Major Fail

King Assassination Anniversary – A Different Take On Things
 

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Over the last few weeks I’ve seen and heard some disturbing things.

The latest was the tale of a young woman who got home from picking up a pizza she’d ordered, looked at the receipt and saw that one of the people at the place has written about her “lady chinky eyes”. What the heck was that all about? Of course the person got fired and Papa John’s, the pizza joint, apologized and has tried to reach out to the young woman, who’d copied the receipt, put it online, then talked about it on Twitter, where it spread across the country like wildfire.

The other two examples were young women, two in one video and one by herself, deciding to try to be funny by making racist statements, the two about illegal aliens and the individual taking shots at black people, using bad language including the n-word.

Both ended up suffering consequences that it’s hard to believe they didn’t expect would come from doing it. Hate messages on their posts, death threats, and a release of all their personal information which included names, addresses and phone numbers. In both cases the videos were eventually removed and the channels shut down, and in the individual case it came after the young lady tried to apologize for trying to be funny. However, in both cases copies of the video were downloaded and uploaded elsewhere; the internet isn’t that forgiving. And all personal information for all 3 young ladies is still out there, along with tens to hundreds of responses to their original videos.

One might want to take the view that these young ladies learned this type of behavior at home. I’m not going to go quite that far, but it’s the type of thing that always makes me wonder what people are thinking about when they decide to do things like this. What could their thought pattern be? How could anyone who does these things have missed all the examples of people who have done this sort of thing before and how it ended up? Has everyone forgotten the Michael Richards example, who also said he was just trying to be funny later on?

Racism isn’t funny; it never has been. Sure, there have been racist jokes throughout history, some even told now, and people will laugh. I tend to think there’s a time and place for everything. Comedians often set things up before they go off with their tales, and because of that they can get away with it. They also usually go after themselves first, to show that there are no sacred cows. Some pull it off; others, well, we don’t hear of them for long.

You know what’s really scary? Both of the most recent videos had over a million views before they were pulled. This shows that in today’s world stupidity can spread faster than you might think it would. There’s nothing private anymore, and if this is what you think fun is even in private, you need to adjust our thoughts and beliefs and get a different life.

No, racism isn’t funny. Threatening young women with death for being stupid isn’t funny either. I say often around here that free speech comes with consequences, but there are times when the response is overboard as well. Calling out hate is expected; threatening to kill underaged girls is another.

Unfortunately, that’s what racism does. It gets people riled and it’s hard to put that genie back into the bottle. Just don’t do it, whether you’ve prepared for the consequences or not.
 

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“If you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything.”

Unfortunately I can’t tell you who the quote is from because it’s pretty much in dispute, but it doesn’t matter because it’s a great quote anyway.

I was prompted to think about this quote as I was having lunch with someone earlier today. As she was telling me some of her tales, I realized that I had a few of my own on this subject of fairness and realizing that sometimes you have to take that next step towards being fair to everyone, even if it ends up being nothing.

For instance, I remember at one hospital when I had to be the one to step forward and tell a HR director that where we worked needed to start recruiting minorities as employees at the hospital, for more than one reason. His take was that no one ever applied. My take, which I’d confirmed by someone who did work in the hospital (in housekeeping, the only department that had minorities besides myself) was that people in the community had decided over the years that the hospital wouldn’t hire anyone and thus had stopped trying.

How I got around that was to tell this person I knew to mention it to other people with any kind of job skills and have them apply to the hospital, let me know about it and I’d at least get them interviews for positions they were qualified for. It all eventually worked, and I took great pride in being the one who started the ball rolling.

At another place, I remember a conversation about hiring someone that had vision problems. The person could see, but not great, and would need an enhanced computer screen to do the job. My take on it was if the person had the skills and could perform the job and all it took was a larger monitor (back then a 15″ inch screen was the largest we could get) was that we, as a medical facility, should feel obligated to do what we could. Of course that was easy for me to say since it wasn’t my department but the person did get the job and did well at the job.

When people overcome their predispositions against someone and give them a chance because they’re qualified, they often find that their fears were unjustified and are glad they took a chance on that person. I have no doubt that there were times people might have had doubts about my working with them; heck, I probably get that now, although I don’t know for sure since those people probably never even pick up the phone to call.

Those are the easy times, though. What’s harder is standing up for others when you might not have a vested interest. I’ve done that as a consultant from time to time, while still acknowledging that wasn’t the reason I was on a consulting assignment. I figure that sometimes you have to stand on a principle, even if it’s just mentioning a situation, rather than always be concerned with your own place in this world.

As long as your intention isn’t to hold someone back, I tend to believe that taking positive steps to help others, no matter how small, is always a good thing to do. What say you?
 

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I’ve been writing this blog for almost 7 years now, and I noticed that I’ve never said “Merry Christmas” in any posts here, and only used it once in a title, that being last year when I posted a video of Josh Groban singing O Holy Night. I don’t think I’ve used the phrase in at least 20 years, if not longer.

So why am I talking about it now? I have a friend of mine who calls himself Sire, and I’ve known him about 4 years now. We rarely disagree on anything, but for once I’ve found something that I do disagree with him on after he wrote a post titled Why I Believe In Merry Christmas. In his post, though he says he believes that people should have the right to say whatever they wish during this season, he believes that it takes away from the Christmas holiday because Happy Holidays, in his opinion, is too generic, and it’s somewhat insulting to him (his actual quote was “political correctness gone wrong”).

I believe he’s wrong because it presumes that every person one meets is Christian, and thus no matter what that person believes they should be happy to have someone say Merry Christmas to them. He believes that people will know you’re not being disingenuous to them if you say it so there’s no harm.

My first point would be if that’s the case then why does it upset him if people say Happy Holidays? I mean, if he doesn’t worry about others being upset because they’re not Christian why should he be upset because others aren’t assuming he is?

My second point is that he is in Australia, and I’ve read from and about many Australians who don’t see that they have a race issue just like we have in the United States. It’s glossed over of course because most countries in the world think racism is only a United States issue, but Aborigines in Australia lament about their problems just like minorities do here, and I’ve seen the jokes that come that are somewhat racist concerning them. I’ve even mentioned it a time or two but they just don’t understand it and think I’m being sensitive because I’m black; sorry, but of course I am, and that doesn’t mean racism doesn’t exist in other countries. So if racism exists why not “religious xenophobia” (it seems there’s no word for hatred of other religions; there is a word for fear of religion or God, theophobia)?

My third point is that Christmas isn’t the only religious holiday in December in this world. I could make a list; I think I will:

• Hannukah
• Kwaanza
• Winter Solstice
• Boxing Day
• Oraza Bayram
• Feast of the Immaculate Conception
• Virgin of Caacupe
• Mother’s Day (a religious holiday in some countries)
• Saint Nicholas’ Eve
• Hari Raya Haji
• St. Stephen’s Day
• Eid il-Burbara

In my book that’s a lot of religious holidays. Here in the U.S., you can bet that there’s a significant number of people celebrating each of those holidays on their particular dates. I would bet this is true of most large countries; maybe not the majority of people but who says that only the majority should deserve to have their holidays stated in public over anyone else’s?

As a diversity educator, I might be a bit more sensitive than many other people on this subject, to the point where someone might say I’m just being politically correct. If that means that I make sure I treat everyone with the same dignity then so be it. This isn’t a condemnation of anyone saying Merry Christmas; please, feel free. However, justifying it for any other reason than being comfortable with it is wrong. And I will always believe that and state it for those who feel that no one else will listen to them.

From this blog, for this season, Happy Holidays.
 

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I had an interesting experience yesterday that I’d like to share with you. I’m wondering if you’ll get the message here or if you’ll miss it; let’s find out.

I went to pick my mother up to bring her to the town I live in for Thanksgiving. She’s going to be staying with a friend of hers for a few days but doesn’t drive long distances anymore.

The New York Thruway has multiple rest areas and while driving her to my area I was hungry and had to go to the rest room. So I pulled off at one of the rest areas to take care of things, while Mom stayed in the car.

I went to the rest room first, then to the McDonald’s window, since that was the anchor restaurant at this particular area. I ordered my food, then waited for them to call my number. When my number was called I went to get my food, only to realize that it was only my drink they had ready for me; no big deal. Well, not really; I had asked for extra ice in my drink, and there was barely any ice in it, so I asked if I could have more.

When one of the people took the cup away, the waitress said something I didn’t quite hear, but I heard what came out of the guy’s mouth who I believe was the front counter manager: “What are you, a wigger?”

I was stunned, but they weren’t done (if you don’t know what that means, go look it up; I’m not going there right now). They started having a conversation about it while I was standing there, as if they were sitting in a bar. I was stunned, but I made sure not to show it. My thought was that they would never have had that conversation had it not been me standing there, and even if they would have it was inappropriate conversation, at McDonalds, in front of many other people and children and with another black person just about to order food.

Here’s the thing. The people were pretty nice to me and except for that episode this would have been a pleasant experience. It seemed fairly obvious that they had no clue that what they were saying, where they were saying it and when they were saying it was their internal racism becoming unhidden. To me, using a term like “wigger” is as bad as the other word that begins with “N”, no matter who it’s aimed at.

This is where I was in a quandary. I could have used it as a teaching moment, lost my mind, demanded to see a manager then and there, or many other things. Instead, I decided to get my food and leave. I had my mother in the car, I wasn’t sure how many other people heard it, and frankly I kind of felt outnumbered, especially since I wasn’t in my hometown. I felt like I did one day at a local gas station when a white kid got out of his car with all this misogynist gangsta rap playing, the “N” word being said over and over, his radio playing loudly and him singing the song along with them, then looking at me; what could I say? How did he perceive me at that moment, or was he even noticing that I was there?

I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do now, but I shouldn’t have to be put into this type of position. Unfortunately, this kind of thing happens more often than most people want to believe, and I know most of it is unintentional. It’s just stunning when racism becomes unhidden, and yet the perpetrators still can’t see they’ve done anything wrong. What say you?
 

Copyright protected by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch  Mitchell

At the beginning of last week we were treated to two Freudian slips, if you will, from a politician and a political pundit. Both were aimed at President Obama, which figures because he’s been the direct recipient of them since he took the presidency.

On one end was a congressman who, in a conversation, referred to the president as a “tar baby”. No, he didn’t directly call the president that, which was probably his only saving grace. On the other end of the spectrum was the political pundit, very well known former speech writer for President Nixon, who called the president “boy” during a conversation with civil rights activist Al Sharpton. That he said it to Rev. Sharpton was really out there in the first place, but even with Rev. Al called him on it, he didn’t get it.

Freudian slips are basically when you mean to say one thing but your mind really wants to say something else, and thus you do. President Obama is 2 1/2 years into his presidency and it’s amazing how many people have had to apologize for things they’ve said over his time in office, all of it racial. They all have said they didn’t mean to offend. Sorry to say this, but of course they did.

History has shown us that people will attack whatever is the easiest thing they can find. If someone’s overweight there will be a lot of fat jokes; if they’re bald there will be a lot of those jokes. That’s just how it’s been almost forever; we all did it as kids.

The thing is that this is not only a different day and age, but we’re adults now. We’re supposed to have learned better than to say certain things that are offensive to someone else. Certain terms shouldn’t be used for gays or hispanics or people from other cultures. And they certainly shouldn’t be used for black people, of which I’m a proud member.

Yet, many politicians have found that these code words, if you will, work towards mobilizing their political base. Strangely enough, it’s something that’s worked very well in France, where some of the politicians routinely find a minority group to go after because they know they’re tapping into the racism of certain groups who will surely vote for them.

Does it work in America? Actually, it seems to. Some will think this is unfair but there were a number of coded messages that came from the Tea Party campaign in 2010, one that swept a high number of people into office. Some would say that it was just America showing it was angry with how things were being run and that they decided to elect people who better represented them. If that’s the case then why was there only one minority elected who was considered a Tea Party candidate? Sorry, but that doesn’t smack of inclusion from where I sit.

I remember the days of people slamming President Bush. People complained that they didn’t think he was all that bright. People complained because they thought he took us into one war that wasn’t justified. But you never heard a single person say “we need to take back our country”. You never heard anyone say “this isn’t the America I remember”.

You also never had Rush Limbaugh calling George Bush a “halfrican”. You never had 60 Minutes ever ask any other presidential candidate if he were “white enough”. You never had anyone drawing racist caricatures of any other president or candidate. You never had a black DJ put on whiteface to make fun of a white president-elect. I do have to admit that I do remember seeing pictures of Bush as a monkey, so folks showing Obama as monkey had to be on the way.

I know it’s the way of the world, and I know it’s never going to change in this country, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. When I can, I’ll call it out because if no one stands up for it, then we all fall victim to it.

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Last week I had lunch with a friend of mine. We were talking about each other’s businesses and our profile, so to speak, on Twitter. He said that in general he liked things I said, but wished I didn’t concentrate on race as much.

I said a lot of things to him in explaining why I talk about race. I’m not going to get into everything I said to him, but I will explain in general why I talk about it.

I’m a child of the 70′s, pretty much the early part. During that time, we were “black and proud.” It was a mantra that I remember uttering as young as 10 years old, though it took another 2 years before I actually knew what that meant.

I’ve always been the observer. One of my friends has a name he calls me that I’m not going to use, but it’s a term of affection that I’m proud he uses. He says I look at what’s going on and I see truths that people don’t want to own up to. He says that if something is racial, no matter what someone else may believe, he knows I’ll see it and I’ll call it out when all others stay silent. He says I stay true to the cause.

What is the cause? The cause isn’t a promotion of the rights of minorities over anyone else. The cause is balance, equality, and fairness. And, by the way, it’s not always race. I was proud of what New York did last week in passing the gay marriage act; it’s something that the nation needs to do in my opinion.

The fact is that things aren’t equal or fair. Some people point to just how many blacks there are in positions of power these days. I point to just how few people there are in regular jobs or leadership positions in regular companies, including health care.

Statistics say that blacks are prominent online. Yet last week I had to write a post on my other blog pointing out 21 prominent black voices in social media because other people and companies that have been putting these types of lists together for the past 3 years almost never mention anyone black, and I’m sorry but in the 21st century even if you mention one you don’t get a pass; I’m tired of tokenism as a general rule.

Last week in Syracuse there was a racial issue involving an Asian young man being verbally berated by two drunk white kids at Syracuse University. Another white kid hours later wondered, out loud, why it was a big deal. It had to be me to step up to the task of telling him, in no certain terms, why it was a big deal. He took it well, and thanked me for my point of view.

That’s why I talk about race. Because every day there’s someone who doesn’t get it, someone who, strange to me though I should be expecting it, doesn’t get the whole “race” thing, someone who’s never had to worry about it because it doesn’t impact their daily life. And I say something because I’ve reached the age where I now have some people listening. Sometimes it takes that one voice to help change things around.

And hopefully, though I respect the man, I’ll never get to the point of saying things like Dr. Cornel West has been saying lately. He’s right and wrong at the same time; but that’s a conversation about race for another time.

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About 2 1/2 months ago I took what I considered as kind of a drastic step. I removed my image from my website and from this blog. I knew it would still come up if I responded to people’s comments, but figured something that small is often passed over by people. I wrote about it here in a post titled When You Eliminate All Other Possibilities…

My thinking was that it was possible that there were some old school beliefs that kept visitors from calling to talk to me more often about projects. I felt that it was possible that having my image on the site would give some people the impression that maybe I wasn’t quite the person for them; I hope I don’t have to specifically say why, but if so you can ask me. So I removed the picture to test that theory.

The image is back because the experiment has failed. Removing the image didn’t increase the number of phone calls at all. Everything held as status quo; it’s possible that maybe my thoughts and beliefs were unfounded.

Yes, I said “possible”. I’m pretty much out here on the internet. If someone really wanted to learn more about me it’s not hard. Remove the former drummer for Jimi Hendrix and it’s either me or the reporter for the Fort Worth newspaper that comes up the most, and the other guy doesn’t come up in the top 50 searches of the name. I come up on page 3 on regular Google, but page 9 on Google Images; hey, that’s okay I guess.

The real issue here then becomes not necessarily whether or not my image has prevented me from being busier but why I even had to consider it in the first place. When there aren’t a lot of people who look like you that do what you do and you see that little shock on someone’s face every once in awhile when they meet you, it’s something you just don’t forget. It’s no wonder then that it becomes part of something one has to take into consideration whenever one gets into the position of trying to figure things out.

It’s the 800-pound gorilla in the room that people aren’t comfortable with, and it brings about many faux pas’. People are finding out they can’t say some of the same stuff they’ve said about other presidents besides President Obama because suddenly those references take on a racial tone. Artists have to watch how they make caricatures of the man because there have been many racist caricatures of black people in the past. People want to tell black jokes but always end it with “I hope you didn’t find that offensive”; ugh.

So I had to do my little test, and now the test is over and my image is back on my biography page. That would have made my dad happy.

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