(ThyBlackMan.com) Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic recently wrote an article called “The Economics of Magazines and Diversity.” The title was not nearly as interesting as the one that reeled me in: “Why Magazines Don’t Hire Black Writers.” The question is one that I hear asked on a regular basis, and one that I’ve thought about quite a bit.
Coates seems to boil the issue down to two things:
1) A lack of diversity that lies within the DNA of many major publications, and
2) The fact that these publications are even struggling to hire the white guys.
Many of today’s publications are no longer the powerhouses they once were, and are effectively “Dead Men Walking,” with a life expectancy about as long as the rapper Lil Wayne.
With complete respect to Coates’ points, I find it interesting that African Americans tend to have conversations about economic and job opportunities that lie inside a social bubble with an unwavering racial ceiling. We sit around and wonder why white guys seem to have so much power over our lives, and why we can’t get jobs with companies that are owned by the descendants of
The point is this: The reason we can’t get jobs as black writers is because we don’t create our own publications. The fact is that, in 2012 America, even with your swaggadoshis black president and his beautiful black wife, many of us are still living in a fantasy land. We truly believe that, if we work hard enough and have the same qualifications as the white guy, they are going to give us the same opportunities and simultaneously allow us to be something close to our authentic selves. Sorry my friends, but that’s just stupid.
Would you let someone move into your house and then shift around the furniture? No, you would not. After all, it’s your house, you built it, and you make the rules. The only way you might even consider allowing someone to stay in your house (which you probably would not) is if they do what you say and live by your rules. Moving the furniture is probably not even an option, and if it is, they can only move things after getting your approval.
The point is that, it only makes sense that a white guy is going to hire other people who are just like him. After all, that’s what many people do. Don’t get me wrong, you should pick the best person for the job and all that good stuff, but the fact is that when resources are scarce, the first people you help are those in your family or social circle. That’s why I offer my daughters chances to work for me before I consider anyone else and why President Obama chose an undeniably unqualified man like Arne Duncan to run the Department of Education (no offense Arne, but I have too many friends in Chicago who agree with me). The fact is that if it’s my house, I make the rules and I decide where the furniture is going to be.
So, for all of the aspiring writers who get your feelings hurt every week because CNN, MSNBC, The Atlantic and The New York Times aren’t returning your calls, I can give you this piece of advice: There is a chance that they will never call you and when they do, they are going to expect you to be one of them. It’s the only rational way for them to protect their brand. If you truly want to be free, get off the psychological and economic plantation and take pride in creating your own business. The Internet is wide open, and there are tools out there to help you own the land on which you stand. Stop letting the world set your limitations and start taking what belongs to you.
With regard to Mr. Coates, the Finance Professor in me agrees with every single thing he says. These institutions certainly have exclusion in their DNA, and the fact is that most of us have some kind of exclusion in our DNA is well. The only way to get power and true equality is to learn to build and develop something yourself and not wait for someone else to save you. Just because someone lets you in the door, that doesn’t mean they respect you, similar to how a man might feel if another man needs to stay in his basement.
True freedom, equality and opportunity are created, not given. Self-sufficiency is the ultimate cure for racism.
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The deplorable remarks were directed at someone who shares the same background as the commentor for which we do not represent. Therefore, the commentor should stop blaming others for the predicament hie finds his trifling @ss in.
Okay now you're hearing what I think most white people are thinking from their own mouths, but you still want to give them your hard earned money, instead of creating businesses for our people like every other group does, including whites, so we don't have to rely on them for nothing. White people don't get the fact that if it wasn't for our ancestors working from sun up to sunset for 300 years for free, this country wouldn't have the wealth or greatness it has now. The white commenter is write about one thing and that is we will not be the first chosen to get the job, no matter how qualified we are. It's overtime we start to do for ourselves and stop relying on the same people who murdered, raped, and in slaved our ancestors for our lively hood.
Black Unity means financial independence and happiness
You n1ggers will never understand......
While Whites might not hire you because they know you will steal, do lazy work with a horrible work ethic (if you worthless n1ggers even work at all, with all your free n1gger handouts, welfare, food stamps, etc.), and then file a bullsh!t lawsuit about how you were "oppressed" and "discriminated" against, even though everyone knows you're flat out lying, the real truth is that you n1ggers aren't ever hired, because in this economy, jobs are not plentiful. You will always now have at least one White Man trying to get the job over your worthless shitskin n1gger self, and everyone knows that Whites have superior intellect, work ethic, and besides, we are just overall cleaner, more attractive to have to look at all day long, and we damned sure smell a hell of a lot better.
N1ggers keep thinking that everything should be handed to them for free, and that you actually deserve it (what a crock of sh!t). Well, we're done with you n1ggers, every last one of you. You have been given everything by us, and you still live like animals, incapable of even acting like civilized human beings. Each and every one of you belong in a jail or prison, without the possibility of harming another human being ever again.
And each and every one of you worthless n1ggers damn well know it.
Another message to Sylence,
We know about your wicked system, the excerpt below explains it in details:
In Hawaii, the population never had a governor of Hawaiian origins. In the 70s they had someone from the Philipins and that's it, never another minority! And we all know it is not because they are not smart. The mainstream keeps them at the bottom of the society like Black people. Here is an excerpt (from the book Why We Want You To Be Rich (p. 167-168) by Donald Trump and Robert T. Kiyosaki) explains what they do to the Natives over there (it is a narration from Kiyosaki who has hawaiian origins), they use the same tactics in America with Black kids especially Black boys (80% of the kids who are in special education programs are from the Black community!!!):
" My dad was a great man. Even as a child, I looked up to him and respected him. I was proud to be his son, and I wanted him to be proud of me. On the first day of school, teachers would read the class roster and every teacher would stop after calling out my name and say, "Is Ralph Kiyosaki your father?" My dad was the head of education for the state of Hawaii. He was tall for being Japanesem, about 6'3, so he stood out in more ways than one. He was known as a brilliant man and an independent thinker. He had graduated at the top of his class as valedictorian and was respected as a great educator in the school sysrem of Hawaii. Just before he passed away, he was recognized as one of the top two educators in Hawaii's history. I remember him showing me the newspaper article about the award and he was crying. As the article said, he had dedicated his life to education and Hawaii's children.
My dad had originally planned on going to medical school. Our family for generations, had been medical doctors. But when he was in high school, on the island of Maui, he noticed that his classmates were rapidly disappearing from class. As student president of his class, he went to the principal to find out where the kids were going. At first, he got the runaround, but he finally learned the truth. He found out that the sugar plantation that most of the kids' parents worked for had a standing order that 20 percent of the kids had to be failed, regardless of how they were doing in school. This was to ensure that the sugar plantation had enough uneducated laborers. My father learned that teachers, principals and people at all levels within the education system went along with that. It was then that my father decided against medical school and went to college to become a teacher to try to change the system. In addition, he fought to bring the best education possible to kids whose parents could not afford private schools - kids who had no choice but to depend on the public school system to work for them instead of against them. He fought that battle all his life.
However, our country's education system is just getting worse. America has one of the worst educational systems in the world, yet it spends more money on education than any other country does. As hard as my dad fought, the state of Hawaii continues to have one of the worst education sytems in America. The May 2006 issue of Honolulu Magazine ran a cover-page article grading public schools in Hawaii. The article stated that the National Education Association (NEA) rated Hawaii as number 43 out of the 50 states - in other words, the seventh lowest in the nation. It issued a D- in standards and accountability, an F for school climate, a D for improving teacher quality and a C in adequacy of school resources".
Sylence,
You just exposed your ignorance to the world. We all know about your White privilege, this is the main reason you get the best jobs and you exploit Black people with other immigrants.
An employer will higher the best person for the job. The person with the best work ethic combined with a high intelligence. The "blacks" have nothing but a high drop out rate and are lazy when it comes to any educational development.
Gret point - great article. Until black folks learn to do for self - we will Always be looked as beggars. See Marcus Garvey quotes.
Has any one in the black community ever thought why in the hell black women piss away billions on dollars on Korean owned hair stores?
Also why in the hell black churches collect millions of dollars every Sunday and deposit the funds in white owned banks who wouldn't even loan money to black people unless they charged you extraordinary interest rate.
I would really like to hear any comments or remarks regarding the black community and the lack of economic self development.
Either Dr. Watkins read my book, Black Unity: The Total Solution to Financial Independence and Happiness or he understands our real problem as a people. But he doesn’t stress why we continue to beg people outside our community to solve our problems when we’re in the best position to solve them. Until we acknowledge the psychological effect of slavery and how they continue to control our everyday life, we will never reach our full potential as a people.
This affects us in Africa, here in the US, and wherever else we are. We have all the tools needed to solve our problems. So why do we continue to look outside when we already have everything we need inside, because we’re still slaves, mentally. Why else would we spend a trillion dollars in every community but our own, when our people continue to suffer? Black people, it’s time to wake up before it’s too late.
Black Unity means financial independence and happiness
Excellent article!