My grandfather worked for years in a racist environment. He was called nigger to his face while at work and told the job he had was too good for him. He managed to buy a house in a neighborhood where at the time most of the properties on the block had exclusionary clauses; meaning in the deed of the house it expressly said the property was not to be sold to Blacks. My dad had no idea of what my grandfather went through until he himself started working at the same place in his early twenties.
At some point my father went to his supervisor to complain about the nigger jokes that were being told out loud for the benefit of the whole dept. The supervisor’s response was, “they’re just havin’ a little fun, what you can’t take it?” My dad wrote a letter to his supervisors’ boss and they immediately came and got on the supervisor. As soon as the bosses left my dad was called in by his supervisor and chewed out.
My father endured co-workers playing dirty tricks on him that made his workmanship appear inferior. Someone would change a needed component on his project or “borrow” his tools. All in an effort to have him “downgraded.” At some point my father wrote a letter requesting to go to school through an upward mobility program. His supervisor balled the letter up and threw it away telling him to get back to work or he would have him mopping floors before the end of the week. According to the G.I. Bill the agency was supposed to make it as convenient as possible for my father to go to school. Eventually my father was allowed to go to college but the hoops he had to jump through due to ignorant, jealous, racists were in my mind inconceivable until earlier this week. I can’t remember experiencing such outright racism in my life, but as I look at today’s headlines:
World’s Most Powerful Man Seems . . . Powerless
White House Refuses To Take Charge & Lead
More To Obama: Show Some Guts
Just Another Black Man With Bad Credit
Associating With Obama Is Like Touching A Tar Baby
I am seeing ignorant, jealous, racists at work in 2011. I have no idea what actually goes on behind closed doors on the Hill. But from where I sit it appears to me that these bigoted Tea Partiers have put President Obama in a place where he cannot do his job then they go to the media and complain that he’s not doing his job.
The Republicans refused to negotiate and compromise over the debt ceiling/debt reduction agreement interlocking two issues that have never been handled together and drawing out the process. This put the President in a position where he could not do what he needed to for the country and consequently the United States lost their stellar credit rating. This is akin to taking someone’s tools so they cannot perform their job.
Now don’t get me wrong I am not in agreement with everything President Obama has done since taking office, however neither am I blind. At no time in history has Congress fought EVERYTHING the President has attempted to do with the express intent of wanting his administration to fail. The only difference in this case is that a Black man holds the presidency.
It is asinine to say Obama’s lack of leadership caused the credit downgrade when it is obvious that his "co-workers” were playing games in order to make his performance seem inferior. The Tea Partiers “havin’ a little fun” at the expense of the country, members of Congress screaming “You Lie” at the President and people referring to him as a Tar Baby are outright racist attacks. This country should not allow the primitive behavior of a few to diminish the significant racial gains that have been made over the last fifty years as evidenced by a Black man in the White House.
