Alien Nation/Alienation

Today, Rand Paul (R) Kentucky spoke at Howard University. He is one brave dude. Let me be clear, it is not that I expected the young people at Howard (commonly referred to by Black folk as "The Mecca") to treat him with disrespect or discourtesy. Quite the opposite. I expect that they were instructed to be on their absolute best behavior. No, Sen. Dr. Paul is a brave dude because  he's on record as having said that he believes in private ownership, and private owners should, to his thinking, have the right to refuse service to persons of color. That is one brave dude.To hold such a view and yet be courting the favor of intelligent people of color? BRAVE.

And then, also in today's headlines, there's this report in Think Progress about Jim Gile, a Republican commissioner in Saline County, Kansas, who "used an offensive racial slur during an argument with a fellow commissioner, but he wants everyone to know that he isn’t a racist because he’s “built Habitat homes for colored people".

And then, last week, there was that Congressman - Rep. Don Young - from the great state of Alaska, using that old loving term 'wetback' to refer to Hispanics. I tell you, I'm starting to feel like this is an Alien Nation. Or at the very least, I'm starting to feel a little alienation.

Oh and there's the high school graduating class in Georgia, working assiduously at having the school's first integrated prom. Whoo hoo!

In the cases of Mr. Gile of Kansas and Mr. Young of Alaska, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. They are older men, and attitudes and language, are tougher to change past a certain age. If you're accustomed to calling women, 'girls', I'm not going to take offense. If black men are all 'boy' to you, I won't take offense, the black man standing next to me might, but I won't. I understand you see, that you are a prisoner of the time in which you grew up.

Rand Paul though, is a bit of a different story. I just happen to think he hasn't really thought through his positions (certainly not his position on the Civil Rights Act) and therefore says stupid stuff. Well it's either that, or he truly thinks that holding to his beloved Libertarian values means one gets carte blanche to be a racist, sexist, ageist, homophobe. I'm erring on the side of 'he hasn't thought his positions through'. That just makes more sense to me.

While he's working his thoughts out, he and various others (all too often members of his party), say things that let me know, in no uncertain terms, that I am not welcome under their tent. That's OK. The sky is clear and I'd rather be outside anyway.

Misplaced: my 'pearls without price'

The other day, I was thinking about inflection points. The terrific term 'strategic inflection point' was coined by Andrew S. Grove. In his own words, the strategic inflection point is "represents, [sic], what happens to a business when a major change takes place in its competitive environment." Whatever the cause of that major change, a company has to adjust. Such adjustment may require new technology; new marketing strategies or methods; new distribution mechanisms. Whatever the changes are in the playing field, they must be met by equally new (and aggressive) changes in the way the company does business else the company may find itself fighting for its very life. I want to posit that the same is true for us.

Here's what I was really ruminating about: the question was posed on a political website, what the cost of discrimination might be. Some economist has calculated the figure in the trillion dollar range. My calculation is quite simple, the cost is infinite, incalculable even or perhaps 'too high to be borne'.

Hypothetical situation.....
You apply for a job. No wait. Back that up a bit. A job is created for you in an organization where these things are routinely done. You apply and are interviewed for the position. Obviously you must be interviewed because technically, you're the incumbent so you know the most about the particular job and its needs. You interview well and go home to wait for the call. You wait. You wait some more. No call. Wait. What? You call and are advised that they've chosen someone else for the position. Wait. What?? Hm. When asked, the manager advises that they chose someone else who would 'have more energy'. Wait. What? Many moons later, you discover that 'more energy' is a euphemism for 'younger'. Wait. What?

And so now you have a new problem: you're unemployed. "OK, no big deal" you say to yourself, "You have skills and education and you're reasonably personable. This will all come right." Right? Wrong. Unfortunately for you, it's the beginning of the Great Recession and ain't nobody hiring. You wait and wait and try and try because, it's bound to come right soon. But this is the time when the economy is shedding jobs at a rate not seen since the Depression. Before long, you realize that it doesn't really matter how many applications you write, or how much you tweak your resume or how carefully crafted your cover letter is, it's not making a lick of difference.

With each passing day standing on the outside looking in, other factors are coming into play: the duration of time you're out; your age (ever increasing and ever more burdensome, never mind how fabulous you look); your zip code (ever heard of zip code discrimination?). Your gender; your race; your weight or your ability level (any special needs that are protected under the law) may already have been at issue. When you add the others...... Lucky for me, I'm a five-fer. I have feet in five of those camps.

And thus, from the ONE discriminatory act, and entire new life's trajectory is created. I call it a professional strategic inflection point because that is most assuredly what it is. From this ONE event, a veritable cavalcade of others follows. No job, no money. No money, no health care, no dental care, no eye care. No health care? Minor issues quietly become much larger issues. Then there's the whole economic insecurity piece; and the mental health/self-worth piece. Each of these - health, self-worth, economic stability is a pearl without price. The cost of discrimination? Does the question even really need to be asked?

For the fortunate, a quick adjustment will be made. Some opportunity will come along that allows you to quickly get back in the game and avoid the cavalcade. For the not-so-fortunate, things will only get worse. Eventually, in addition to worrying about today, you start worrying about the tomorrow (not tomorrow but tomorrow's tomorrow). Retirement? Let's not even talk about that!

I'm sorely tempted to take the time to rewrite my entire resume; change all my work experience to make myself less obviously international; adjust my zip code and apply for some jobs just to see what would happen. I know this has been done by others in the past, so it's no stretch to guess what might happen. Of course, the problem with that is that when you get the calls, the victory is Pyrrhic. You can't show up for the interview because you've so misrepresented yourself in the resume. What do you then do with this 'success'? Who do you call? And if you do call someone you're still standing on the outside, looking in. You're still standing at your professional inflection point asking, "Wait. What?"