She Killin It

The Black Girl Project

The Black Girl Project {teaser 2: electric boogaloo} from Aiesha Turman on Vimeo.

I can only imagine the vacations Palin would take.

I’m a little late on getting my thoughts out about First Lady Obama’s trip to Spain with cutie-patootie Sasha, but here goes. I really didn’t think it was a big deal until articles like this one New York Daily News started popping up. Folks (i.e. Republican’ts, white people, and dumb black folks) are upset over Lady O’s vacation. Some are not upset over the vacation, just the lavishness of it; some are just upset over the vacation. What did I think when I saw the photos? OMG! She looks fabulous! Ha Ha Ha.

I don’t care if she takes a billion vacations on the tax payers dime or not (some reports say that she spent her own money and that the taxpayers covered secret service and all that jazz). Well I do care a little, but I have a very high tolerance rate for her so she’d have to take almost a billion vacations to upset me, but anyhoo. It’s a recession right? Everyone should be sad and struggling. No one should be living the “good life” right now. Eh, Candace ain’t in a recession, in fact Candace got a raise, a promotion and a better place this year. God is good. The Obama’s aren’t in a recession either and I don’t think they would be if they weren’t in the White House. True.

I’m glad to see them “eating good.” Americans are a selfish self-righteous people. People have been buying jets, $70 hotdogs, Christian Loubitins, and multiple million dollar homes for years while entire cities and communities experienced extreme poverty and unemployment (Appalachian mountain communities, Detroit, Flint, Toledo, etc.). We (Americans) were cool with paying celebrities millions upon millions to tell us how much money they make and how they are gonna “blow” it. We allowed the rich to receive tax cuts for years and we allowed our city leaders to neglect our roads, schools, and well being. So why be made now? I highly doubt anyone personally felt the pinch in his pocket over the Obama vacations.

Let’s be real right now; most people if they had the money and wanted to, would take a 5-star vacation and not give a damn if John Doe somewhere in Indiana lost his job at the plant. So if you could, you would, but can’t and mad cause someone else DID. Isn’t that called, HATING? America is full of Haters? Ya’ll hating on the First Lady? (Did that come out right?)
Besides, how would the image of a homely, down trodden, sour faced First Family help the American economy? What image would that project?

Jesse? Quit playing on my F****** phone!

Will Smith said...

Don't try and build the great wall of China overnight.

Just learn to lay ONE perfect brick at a time"

~ Will Smith

We Should Take Care of Each Other

A couple of weeks back an ex co-coworker called to ask me if she could interview me for her Organizational Behavior class. Say what, now? “You think I have a behavioral problem?” That wasn’t the case. We discussed the importance and influence of corporate culture and the effect on employee performance and job satisfaction. It was a good conversation, but what really stuck was when she said, “I felt like I failed you. As black women, I feel we should take care of each other.” A couple weeks later I’m repeating the same words to a young woman who worked at my organization.

I didn’t repeat those exact words, but it’s how I felt. She had been interning at the company for nearly a year and she had taken a sheep like following to a coworker who was bad news, a show pony, and I knew she would end up “burned.” The relationship wasn’t mutually beneficial she thought she would get mentorship, work experience and a stellar recommendation from this person who only had personal gain in mind. “She’s a big girl,” I thought “she’ll find out sooner or later or maybe not.” On her last day she opened up about the relationship and how badly it made her feel and I realized that I fudged up.

Granted the situation was new to me; do I bad mouth my coworker to an intern? I don’t know this girl. How can I call her a follower? Am I really qualified to give someone career advice? Besides she didn’t ask me Sugar Honey Iced Tea. Besides, this girl’s “Sheppard” was a sista too.
So did I have a responsibility to this young sista, to teach her the game or at least make an effort? In my opinion, yes. It’s hard for people of color in the workplace, especially women of color and I know what it feels like to feel “lost” at work especially fresh out of school. I did appreciate the occasional ‘words of wisdom’ from a seasoned coworker and I did feel the need for mentorship. Besides “other people” do it all the time that’s why “they” are making gains in the workplace and in economic status even social status and “we” still fighting each other.

Black women, black people, have lost the sense of “we” and “us.” That may be a reason we are so “angry” some of us are more “angry” than others, but we are angry; we most definitely have the right to be though. But, we also feel alone sometimes which makes us feel more defensive and aggressive. If we knew we had an army of “Bad Misses” behind us to support us and not take we would get a lot more accomplished and be a lot happier.

That day, she broke down and we had a heart to heart. I gave her the business and she ended up saying, “I wished I would have worked with you more.” “Most people don’t realize how lucky they are to be around me,” I said. “True.” Next time I’ll let them know.