"Dead or In Jail" - 11/16/11

"'Dead or in jail.' Those are the options given to Black youth. It was meant in a physical sense, but it has now become an occupational truth. Racism has changed; it has evolved. What was once cavalier about spraying hoses and tying nooses is now an institution that hides behind corporate walls and deliberately picks and chooses. If your name is out of the acceptable range of normalcy, your resume is tossed aside, no matter how many credentials over which you preside. That's only the tip of the iceberg though. It runs much deeper...so deep that it is in the minds of Blacks that are climbing towards success. They are given the same two options: dead or in jail. To choose death is to choose a more fulfilling career, one that is more concerned with blazing a trail for youth than doing precisely and only what one is told while appearing to be whatever is perceived as couth. In that choice, one's career dies. It is suicide to question 'who am I' while stepping on others, sisters and brothers that would love just to reach where you've been. A coffin awaits the career of an individual that stops their ascent to assist too many people of non-White descent. Most would believe that you were fortunate to achieve any high level of success, that it was based more on benevolence than determination. With that belief in tow, should enough people see you reach for those below, they will call for your termination.There is no award or promotion for extending a hand to those who need a lift. Not when those people are the ones that are kept in the dark just to buy whatever may be marketed as the brightest gift. Not when those people are the ones that don't know their own strength, don't know their own power, don't know that the sweetest things they receive would elsewhere be considered sour. There is no reward, no corner office, no tenure, nothing outside of personal peace. The other side promises those things, at least. To choose jail is to choose to shun those at the bottom shake hands with those at the top, those who believe the inward flow of money should grow, rarely slow, and never stop. You get your degree or degrees, get on your knees, beg and plead, and get the job at a place with an impeccable reputation. You'll be in a high position with high pay, feeling as though you reached success the right way. But that's when it hits you. You're the only Negro you know that has reached this plateau. Your company isn't known for diversity, and there people around you that are less qualified. Your importance is quantified: they needed one person of color. Brother, you're just there because your ethnicity gives some form of validity to their claims of 'equal opportunity' employment. And this is only the beginning of the end of your enjoyment. You won't receive the praise or bonuses that others do. You may not even see things that others view. As it sets in and you realize that following all the rules and acting exactly as the say, it becomes clear that you're running on a hamster wheel every day. But there's no turning back. You've tried so hard to assimilate that any backtracking is considered to be you 'trying to turn Black.' Your people won't want to relate to you anymore. You'll just be in No Man's Land with your nice job and nice pay, trying to figure out how to have a nice day and say things to your coworkers in a 'nice' way. You're basically in jail, trapped in cell that has 4 walls consisting of 'acceptable' behavior, stereotypes, a broken culture, and racism; it also features a glass ceiling. Your daily rations are the simple facts that you've been included in a world that wasn't meant for you and that you're fortunate they even sent for you. What a career that would be.

So what is a young Black professional to do? Stay true. There are those that will be left behind, but many will keep up. One must keep in mind that in our community, success doesn't mean kicking one's feet up. Find a way to make money and be able to give back. Money may do a lot, but love hits home; it means more to give that. Be an example, show the youth that they can do it. Instead of 'dead or in jail,' 'alive and living well' should be the movement. Remind them that White people aren't racist; our society is. There are plenty of them that are 'in jail,' that is, working a job that has them dying to live. The goal is for success to be an heirloom of sorts, passed down from one generation to the next. That way, pride can be restored when professionals say 'our generation did our best,' while imploring the youth to say "our generation will outdo the rest.' It's a necessary paradigm shift. We need for 'dead or in jail' to one day sound as farfetched as a myth.

-A. Lewis