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Ask Ed & Sugar: Obama Backlash Employers Shun Inauguration

23 January 2009 2 Comments

One of the greatest days of my life was interrupted by my boss refusing to let me watch the inauguration in the staff breakroom during my lunch hour. Then my homegirl tells me her company threatened to punish employees who took off work or went to DC to see Obama’s inauguration. Sounds unbelievable, right? Why are some people so angry about this new America?

Janine, Sacramento, California

(Jae C. Hong/Associated Press)

Sugar’sTake

Dear Janine,

If you work in a corporate setting, they are ill concerned with anything that does not help their bottom line (meaning the money). Corporations don’t want you taking a long lunch because it compromises efficiency. You think they want you taking days off to celebrate the accomplishments of a Black family? Now don’t get me wrong, all of our white brothers and sisters are not seeking to degrade other cultures, but most people with power and prestige are not looking to hold hands in human solidarity…there’s too much money to be made. Chances are your company is figuring out how to better it’s image and build capital for the executives. They could care less about you and your Black president. Plus, negroes aren’t popular until they can pimp us for some change…and I don’t mean the Obama kind.

Ed’s Take

Peace Sista Janine,

The Obama backlash is real. We have not seen the last displays of bitterness. While the inauguration marked a freedom morning of historic implications for change loyalists, many folks are heartbroken at the unfathomable; a black President. A nation built on the backs of slaves– and the sweat of people of color– now has a “power to common people” commander-in-chief vowing to end the days of business corruption, blind patriotism, and race baiting. The anger you see for the” New America” is really based on fear. Fear that a more open society will somehow jeopardize individuals’ ability to pimp the system for self interest and cash. America has always been “all about the benjamins baby.”

Fo’ real fo’ real, folks are more comfortable with black folks being in subservient positions. Racism is still in the discrimination business. Some are not ready for blacks and folks from the bottom to have access to “real” power. Because that’s what it is all about …POWER!! We are not talking Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton “march happy” pad my pockets at others expense kind of change, but the kind of all access change that moves from the streets to the suites.

Lastly, Obama’s victory puts a ton of so called “race spokesmen” and antiquated leaders out of business. As a result, there are jealous haters all around. Leadership has undergone a much needed remix as a person outside of the civil rights generation, who is down with young people and hip hop, has made it to the mountaintop. And many can’t handle this truth.

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Got a question; email us askedandsugar@afrostoshelltoes.com!!!

Between catching the uptown train to conduct “we luv the kids” writing workshops to dancing rumba on the lower eastside, Sugar Johnson flaunts his creative freedom in various mediums. The actor, vocalist, and educator have not only shared the stage with prolific artists such as The Last Poets, M-1 of Dead Prez, Jessica Care Moore, and Spike Lee, but he also labors to cultivate the forgotten souls of Rikers Island. Johnson made his film debut in Dave Chappelle’s Block Party. The ASCAP member holds a B.A. in Mathematics from DePauw University and will release the poetry collection Food Clothes and Shelter on his imprint Home Grown Publishing, LLC in 2008.

Award winning writer, educator, counselor, and activist Edward M. Garnes, Jr. is the founder of From Afros to Shelltoes: Art, Action, and Conversation, a nationally acclaimed series of cultural productions confronting the social divide between elders and hip hop heads, and holds a B.A. in English Writing from DePauw University and a M.A. in Counseling from Michigan State University . His seminal essay, ” Sweet Tea Ethics: Black Luv, Healthcare, and Cultural Mistrust,” currently appears in Not In My Family: AIDS in the African American Community, a 2007 NAACP Image Award nominated collection edited by Gil Robertson. (www.afrostoshelltoes.com).

2 Comments »

Gus Mayweather said:

Good stuff guys. There is really a race problem in America, no matter how many Obama t-shirts are sold. Hey Sugar, don’t you have a song called “Still a Ni–a”? Keep doing it guys.

# 23 January 2009 at 11:05 am

Anonymous said:

Now, I can’t speak for all white employers, but my very white boyfriend works for a very white investment bank and his very white bosses let everyone have a two-hour lunch in order to watch the inauguration–they even set up the trading floor so people could watch on a large screen. And if investment bankers aren’t worried about their bottom line, I don’t know who is.

I am a white person who loudly and openly acknowledges that there is still a long way to go before full equality is reached in this country. However, as a white person who lives in a black neighborhood, I’d like to suggest that sometimes people of one race unnecessarily read into people of other race’s actions. (i.e. I did not not hold the elevator doors for you because I’m racist, I just didn’t see you in time, calling me a stupid white bitch is not a good way to ease tensions.)

My point is, while there are plenty of ignorant hateful people out there, not everyone who didn’t want their employees taking off in droves to watch the inauguration is necessarily racist, they just might be jerks.

# 23 January 2009 at 5:03 pm