Raines and Boyd and Blair and Braggs are gone.
It’s over. But still going on.
“Minority Staffers at The Times Feel the Loss And Fear the Fallout,” Washington Post, June 7, 2003.
“NABJ Disappointed at Gerald Boyd Resignation,” PRNewswire, June 6, 2003.
Let’s skip Pulitzer Prize winning Braggs whose lies slinked way way under the radar cuz, face it, Blair is much more colorful.
Raines – the buck stops at the top. The more you’re paid, the more you pay.
Blair … will receive no more copy here. Poof. Be gone.
Boyd, the drive-by casualty – in the right place, at the wrong time. This Pulitzer Prize winner earned his stripes and scars the hardest way, by being black. He will get another chance. If not by offer, then his proffer. Which is a lesson for all of us – ‘if the world don’t give you what you want, give what you want to the world. And keep giving.’ This isn’t the easy road. And it hurts, especially when you’re stepping by yourself. But you gotta. He will get another chance.
And so are people of color.
Note: the verb is “are” – present tense, not “will” – in the by and by. We overcome kicks up a much different attitude than we will overcome … someday.
But what we get and if we get is squarely on our backs.
You want to continue depending on the kindness of strangers?
Last week some staff members of color met with Times owner, Sulzberger, Jr., to “simply talk about the past few weeks and to hear the publisher’s views.” 1 No demands, just conversation.
According to Condace Pressley, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, NABJ “stands ready to offer assistance to Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., in his search for new leadership.” 2
My grandmother always said, “you catch more flies with honey than a fly swatter.”
But to me she was more the epitome of “a soft walker carrying a big stick.” As she patted your head, she switched your bottom. Her point – “I love you. I’ll help you. But I’m not your doormat. Just step on me and see.”
So play nice, but let’s not be a doormat.
While we wait to see what happens next, whether newsrooms will continue or begin to recognize the importance of diversity …
Some idiot folks are making politically incorrect (I’ll be nice) statements that diversity and affirmative action should end.
Some idiot folks are using Blair and Boyd as the poster children that people of color don’t have the same “work values as we do.”
Some idiot folks are gleefully hoping this is another step to “get this country back where it belongs – under the banner of William Bennett’s morals and values.”
And all these idiots don’t fall into one color. Some of them look like you and me.
It is uncomfortable to hear this crap. Especially when so-called friends who can’t quite look you in the eye as you now see deep into their heart.
Yeah, we know if Boyd was white he would still have a job because the evidence connecting him to the mentoring of Blair was no more there than those weapons of mass destruction.
Yeah, we wish the world was perfect, we all got along and were judged not on the color of our skin, but the content of our character.
But we deal with what is. And gonna be.
Starting with no apology.
People of color spend a lot of time apologizing for their existence because “it’s our fault we were slaves.” And it’s our fault we remind people that people they knew, people in their family, committed one of the most egregious and despicable acts in human history.
It’s like when folks borrow money. When they can’t pay it back, they get pissed … at you. And treat you like dirt, even when you haven’t asked back for one dime. But if they keep it up, we start feeling guilty for making them feel so bad.
Guilt is not healthy.
Guilt is a manipulation tool.
Guilt makes you feel so bad you do what you don’t want to do when you shouldn’t.
The person giving the guilt knows that.
The person with the guilt should know that.
If you act from guilt you are always be in a subservient position.
So why would someone stand for that? It’s simple. As long as you are the victim, you have no control over what happens to you. You always have someone else to blame for your few good choices, and many bad ones.
Getting angry? Get angry. It’s the next step after denial.
Now calm down.
So as stated previously by this commentator, no apology for Mr. Blair. Don’t know him. Never met him. And I spent two years in the Times building.
Won’t apologize for diversity and affirmative action. When I have the qualifications! Meet the requirements! But still can’t get my foot in the door. Not going to happen.
A year ago I got a top promotion at my company. Had the youngest tenure. I was told to my face (which was stupid), that I received the promotion because I was black. The speaker waited for me to wilt and defend. Puh leeze.
With a cool calm tone I responded, “I will not apologize for getting something I deserve because someone else, who may also have deserved it, didn’t? The slight bank I’ll get is a minute portion of the benefit this company will get from parading my blackness to their clients?” He STFU.
He picked the wrong black girl to bring that mess to.
STFU.
And let’s get it straight now. If things are so great for people of color, if we’re getting all the handouts and breaks, why is no one volunteering to be Kalih? Or kin to Nelson? Or have Mekhi marry into the family?
Haven’t found a conversion yet.
So no slinking into rooms hoping and praying for acceptance.
Won’t just hope and pray and beg for continuance of diversity.
Equality is a guaranteed right to all Americans. I am an American. Try proving otherwise.
So the next time someone gets in your face playing the guilt card, coolly make your defense an offense. Calmly tell them to STFU and take that mess to someone who doesn’t know better.
Cuz you do.
STFU – Smile That Frown Upside-down. J
1 “Minority Staffers at The Times Feel the Loss And Fear the Fallout,” Washington Post, June 7, 2003
2 “NABJ Disappointed at Gerald Boyd Resignation,” PRNewswire, June 6, 2003
