May 15, 2008 Issue
 

Entrepreneur Nuggets 

58% of households consisting of 2 to 4  people have at least one computer.

30% of households consisting of one person have a computer. 

31% of African Americans wwWeb users have purchased    products or services online.

32% of Hispanic Americans wwWeb  users have bought online services or  products. ________________________________________________________________________

By Codis Hampton II

The Invisible African-American

Hey gang, how about this? This is a story for all people of color; especially black people who have experience what we call a pattern of neglect or non realization of a person’s skill by a white person in a business or work environment. Let me further explain for those who have not experience this type of low or non expectations by a fellow employee or person in a supervisory role directed at an African-American.

By all means, I am not talking about all white people for we are not stupid. We understand that all people who gather in the work place and interact with other members of the workforce bring with them their prejudices, pre-conceived notions of how a particular race might behave in certain situations. They, for all of their stated independence wear the armor fashioned from their childhood and home life along with the beliefs they have learned at the family dinner table or hanging our with their peers. We surmise the problem begins when that childhood is deprived of contact with other races for whatever the reason.

 The white person could have been raised in an area, community, city, or state whereas the only black people ever seen by this child was on a television show or in a film at the local movie theater. So they really don’t have anyone to compare these stories that are discussed by family members, neighbors, and friends of what a black person is really like. Therefore they begin to accept them as the truth.

    Now you can begin to see why some of these people behave in following familiar manner when interacting with people of color.

1. Ever attend a business meeting with a couple of white men, white women, and a few other people are in attendance? It doesn’t seem to matter how long you, Mr. or Mrs. African-American have worked at this particular company.  There is a discussion of ideas about whatever is going on and you offer your expert opinion. You realize you are on the right track because other people of color and maybe one of the other white people are nodding their head in approval. You carefully pick your wording in order to communicate effectively with other members of the gathering.                                                                                                                     

  After you finish, there may be someone who adds a line to your idea by stating “Just to add to what Mr/Mrs African-American said; we could also, yada, yada, yada.   

Now it’s up to the facilitator or boss to digest what they have heard and comment on the same. Nothing is said for a minute, or for what sometime seems like an eternity.

 This silence is followed by Mr. White man who is your equal and not a supervisor stating your idea with a ever so slightly different wording and ending with, “I think will solve our so-in-so problem once and for all.

 The facilitator, who is also white immediately commends Mr. White man for being such an innovator and “By God, I think you are right. Alice, can you get this program off the ground with Mr. White man help and report the problem at our next meeting. Now on to the next item of business”, he continues without even acknowledging your comments to the idea. Let the church say amen?

2. Then there is the look. Before you arrive, your boss is explaining to Mr. White Money Bags (WMB) the upside of advertising his product via your company which is commercial ad outfit. After the customer signs on the dotted line, your boss promises to introduce him to the person responsible for creating the most talked about and effective ad on TV during the Super Bowl Game for the last year.  Joe, WMB tells your boss, you don’t have to sell me on your firm, because in addition to your hot shot ad executive, this firm’s reputation is beyond reproach. When do we get started?

 A few minutes later, you walk into your bosses office and he introduces you to Mr. White Money Bags as the hot shot ad exec. You can see the blood draining, along with some of the excitement from WMB face as he can plainly see, you are an African-American. For a second or two, you could literally hear a single rain drop outside the window of the building.                                                                                             

 Mr. WMB may be the ultimate liberal and one of the most political correct individual one would ever meet. That is not the issue here. Its his initial reaction that we are talking about here. And of course, there is always the other extreme to consider. Mr. WMB may shake your hand and nervously say all the right things while you are in the office. And of course later you may learn your company will not be handling that account after all. Your boss is embarrassed but reports Mr. WMB turned out to be an A_ _ hole.

 The facilitator and Mr. WMB are everywhere in our business world. Sometimes they are very subtle at least they think they are. But, here is an open secret those types of white people should share with their offspring and circle of friends.

 Black people are not of the same mindset on any subject except on these type of actions. We all agree that we are sick of it no matter who it comes from, Whites, Philippinos, Hispanics, Mexicans, and yes even Blacks. Most African-Americans are sick and tired of Black people who show up on Jerry Springer acting a “pur-dee fool” as my parents use to say.

 And even though George W Bush has had and continues to have black faces within his administration, I would say 90% of black people understand this man policies will not help them rise above their current social status. In fact in a lot of case, poor blacks will a lot of the programs offer less and less for day care, education, small business grants and even indirect aid to cities for programs that reach out to the poor constituency of a particular area.

Excuse Me...I Beg your Pardon!

"Another remarkable illustration [of the interest in education} is furnished by the Tuskegee Normal School. This institution (Tuskegee Normal Institute) was started in 1881 by a Hampton graduate, Mr. Booker T. Washington, on a state appropriation of $2,000. It has grown from 30 pupils to 450, with 31 teachers. During the last year 200 applicants had to be turned away for want of room. Fourteen hundred acres of land and fourteen school building form a part of the equipment…All the teachers are colored. Of the fourteen school building, eight have been erected, in whole or in part, by the students.                                                  

Samuel J. Barrows,1891 (excerpt from his article entitled "What the Southern Negro Is Doing for Himself")

"I hold in my hand a statement  prepared by one of the assistants in the Patent Office, showing the inventions that have been made by colored men within the past few years…This statement shows that colored men have taken out  patents upon almost everything from a cooking stove to a locomotive. Patents have been granted to colored men for inventions and improvements in the workshop, on the farm, in the  factory, on the  railroad, in the mine, in almost every department of labor, and some of the most important   improvements that go to make up that great motive power of modern industrial machinery, the steam engine, have been produced by colored men." 

- Congressman George H. Murray,1894 (former slave speaking to his colleagues in the House of Representatives)

"We have done it in the face of lynching, burning at the stake, with the humiliation of "Jim Crow" cars, the disfranchisement of our male citizens, slander and degradation of our women, with factories closed against us, no Negro permitted to be conductor on the railway cars, whether run through the streets of our cites or across the prairies of our great country, no Negro permitted to run as engineer on a locomotive, most of the mines closed against us."                                                                                                       

Congressman, George H. White,1901 (His farewell speech to Congress on the successes of southern blacks)

"The real hero of this struggle is the American Negro. His actions and protest, his courage to risk safety and even to risk his life, have awakened the conscience of this nation. His demonstrations have been designed to call  attention to injustice, designed to stir reform. He has called upon us to make good the promise of America. And who among us can say that we would have made the same progress were it not for his persistent bravery, and his faith in American Democracy.

 President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965 (speaking to congress about civil rights)