Congratulations to the winners!
To the others: better luck next time. You put forth a good effort. You tried and you came up short.
Don’t you deserve something for your effort?
Just because you didn’t come in first place doesn’t diminish the time, the practice, the endurance day after day of preparing and studying. You still have to find a way to make a living.
Write an essay to win a scholarship. Only one can win. What about the others who applied? There should be compensation available for them as well. Look at professional golf. Even the guy that comes in 10th place gets a paycheck. How about regular folk getting treated like that?
Back in the 90’s I worked temporary jobs to practice my skills using PowerPoint, Excel and Access. I got good at it and started getting assignments in Tysons Corner. I met a man who had a permanent job in the beautiful building I was “temping” at, and I asked him if he could help me get in. He got offended. “Oh no.” He was the token black guy. The equal opportunity hire. He said, “I can’t.” They were only hiring white men, white women and “pretty” black women during that time.
It’s not like that anymore. Black men and women have gone on to great success over the last 2 decades in corporate and in government America. We need those who made it to help take away the “aura of exclusiveness” surrounding what society calls success. To the thousands of “TSP millionaires” living a good life from your retirement savings: Don’t look down your noses at your brothers and sisters who were less fortunate.
“I got mine. You get yours,” some will say. Don’t forget those who helped you along the way.
Black people need to learn how to be more than rappers, singers, gangsters and comedians. I mean no disrespect to any of those professions. My point is black people need to diversify.
How many black welders, plumbers and electricians do you know? Can only white men do these jobs? What happened to black neighborhood mechanics who could fix any car? How about making the training to become an airplane mechanic more available to black men instead of just being a coach?
Shine a light on our black men who were incarcerated. They made a bad decision when they were young. Now they must live with it for the rest of their lives. Society does not forgive a felon – even if he’s only 20 years old and regrets the stupid mistake he made. He can’t get a job working at a grocery store or McDonalds. There is no getting around that background check. These are the ones destined to live in poverty OR as hustlers trying to make a living.
For the black men who work in warehouses: how about giving them the chance to learn how to operate heavy equipment? Let them grow and work with even bigger tools. Give them opportunities to work at construction sites digging foundations, installing sewage systems and electrical cable.
These are the type of skills that build a city. To give people an appreciation of where they live. It’s knowing they had a hand in building a gas station, or a fast-food restaurant, or a supermarket on one side and a large parking lot with acreage to support 5 to 10 other businesses on the other. Careers can be built on this. Families can establish roots there.
Once I lied to get a temp job to learn how to lay cable in an office building. The boss saw I was over my head. He was nice when he let me go. But in that short period of time, I learned a lot about cabling. I Thank God I was resourceful enough to learn that way. Can we make it easier for those who come after me? After you?
Kick that door down and allow other black men to walk through it.” This is how we build a community. Person by person.