Many years ago I worked
with a woman who had this ongoing litigatious campaign against the
company we both worked for. I think she was an anti-capitalist of
some type who was just out to undermine companies, one after another
in her grand scheme to impose a different social order. No one knew
about it till she had sprung into action and launched a series of
industrial tribunal cases against the organisation. She used to go
around collecting 'evidence' and grievances from unsuspecting staff
who she would then cite in her latest complaint without them even
being aware they were about to be asked to answer for themselves. You
can imagine how this could suddenly put the career prospects of a
hard working staff who had no prior issues with management in
jeopardy. By the time she left she had taken down about three other
staff members whose situation within the organisation became
untenable, many were long term workers who fell for her sob stories
and curious ability to charm and win over folk.
Even though I believed
she was a bit 'off' and tended to avoid her and her overtures for me
to jump on the 'grievance' train I still had some sympathy. I framed
the issue as 'The big bad corporation crushing its lowly put upon
workers'. One day during a 'union' meeting someone said, 'What
happens when this company folds because she wins a multimillion pound
lawsuit'. Do you know that faster than you could say 'zombie
followers', my priorities suddenly straightened out. In a flash I saw
the critical issues at hand and what was at stake where before I had
been overcome by her cry baby antics and my imposing of the
'victimized worker against evil capitalist corporation' frame on the
situation. The truth was if she was awarded a substantial sum the
company would fold and with it the jobs of over 27 staff members!
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| Love Damian Hirst's Art Design for the Olympic Stadium |
We have to be careful
about imposing popular framing on every situation without doing
investigation into the facts. There are folk out there framing
narratives and creating memes about issues so that the lazy
21stcentury western citizen will vote, organise or oppose
issues based on their quick imposition of these readily circulating
view points. You cannot be naïve in today’s society, in fact there
is no excuse, because it is relatively easy to seek and find clarity
on any issue. Folks who have less than progressive intentions are
co-opting civil rights, freedom of speech, gender equality and all
sorts of other progressive ideals to further their own agenda.
Stop letting your
emotions get the best of you.
Not every crying person is a victim, not every battle is a 'civil rights' battle which should be taken up and embraced by black people because 'we know how it feels'. Some people are rightly being brought to justice, are rightly being scrutinized or opposed for their views.
When I gave it some thought, I realized that this particular worker never did any work, she was forever chatting, doing other stuff on the computer, rejecting management direction and directives. There was even talk of a mental illness but no matter, she did eventually win a big payout after many years and an upheld appeal. The amount appeared as a debt in the company's statement of accounts for many years till it was finally cleared off. Now that there is a backlash against Wall Street and greedy corporations it will favor litigatious employees and career grievance collectors, your company could be at risk.
Not every crying person is a victim, not every battle is a 'civil rights' battle which should be taken up and embraced by black people because 'we know how it feels'. Some people are rightly being brought to justice, are rightly being scrutinized or opposed for their views.
When I gave it some thought, I realized that this particular worker never did any work, she was forever chatting, doing other stuff on the computer, rejecting management direction and directives. There was even talk of a mental illness but no matter, she did eventually win a big payout after many years and an upheld appeal. The amount appeared as a debt in the company's statement of accounts for many years till it was finally cleared off. Now that there is a backlash against Wall Street and greedy corporations it will favor litigatious employees and career grievance collectors, your company could be at risk.
So we finally saw what
she was about but it was too late. I still wonder why we were so
taken in to the point were a number lost their jobs to an obvious
trouble makers antics. My conclusion is that because the company is
set up to work around 'social justice,' accusations of discrimination
and victimization would elicit a strong response in many of us staff
who would then forget to think and be objective. Indeed as an
organisation the whole personal responsibility side of things was
discredited and seen as victim blaming. It just took one person
shouting discrimination, sexism etc to plug into our blind spots and
emotions.
I want to emphasis that
I am not saying that we have run out of civil rights issues that need
addressing, bit we have to be careful that others are not
manipulating us into serving their interests to our own detriment.
Be Knowledgeable
Read broadly - if you are an
all-round knowledgeable person who has the basics when it comes to
most most relevant and current social issues from finance to global
warming, your broad base understanding can provide some protection
against being easily taken in.
London Olympics is Over, It was amazing, I am exhausted... |
| The Queen arrives for the Olympic opening ceremony |
...even the weather behaved itself.
over to you Rio!
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9 comments:
I defintely have to co-sign this 100%. I have had soooo many people try to pull me into their non-sense, starting in my teens, but I could always sense that they were either lying or attempting to use me to their own ends, so I never fell for it. There are people who want NOTHING at all to do with Black women (gay men/racist homosexuals), but feel we OWE them allegiance because they are discrimated against. LOL.
Well, boo hoo. Deal with the issues that affect your group your own damn selves, just like we always have done!
My old government professor, a BM (he always brought up that he's married to a WW lol, kinda weird he always tried to make his marriage a topic) wrote his own textbook and I noticed he talked about womens suffrage, which we all know was about WW trying to vote and he talked BM getting the right to vote and nothing more. I mean he literally erased all BW contributions during the Reconstruction Era and fight for civil rights afterward. He basically gave an elementary school level lesson about the post Civil War era. I thought it was disturbing how he didn't even acknowledge how racist Susan B.Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were and how they were against BM gaining the right to vote! Well, I didn't mention all that to him, but I asked him after class why he didn't mention BWs support and why no one addressed the needs of BW (this was last year, I was really naive!). He said "Well, yeah. We have to focus on the men first, then BW can get what they want." *scoff* Funny how the script is the same for every group BW blindly support: In some way it'll benefit us... eventually...maybe *eyeroll* Aside from a few normal life problems, my life is free from any unnecessary stress since I let all other groups handle their own "problems" now. "Whats in it for me?" is the first thing that comes to mind when any group tries to recruit me.
Black woman = society's pet activist. (Minus the dated '70s fro and fist.)
Women, it's 2012. We've only got to be the champions of our OWN issues. Every other battle we fight in is expended energy used to prop someone else up with our efforts. Like Khadija said, always ask yourself "cui bono" in any situation, and your priorities should likely sort themselves out!
Haha, wow, Halima I thought that picture of the queen parachuting into the stadium was fake, until I watched the video lol I admit I didn't catch all of the Olympics but how did I miss that, haha?
Another wonderful post! It is very important to know one's own "blind spots" to avoid being taken advantage of by others. I had a recent run in with an Internet personality who claims she is all about women's rights, fighting misogyny, etc. Right up my alley. However, I realized that she is a total hypocrite who co-opts these issues in hopes of making her life as a prostitute easier. She doesn't actually care about other women. She also has gender identity/male jealousy issues and despises feminine women.
I think I would have seen this woman's true motives earlier if I focused on what she actually did instead of her women's rights rhetoric.
@samadhi 101
I was just doing some research on Susan B. Anthony. I didn't know she was racist. My understanding is that she was friends with Frederick Douglas and initially supported the Abolitionist Movement. When she realized that Black men only cared about their voting rights and not women's, she dropped the cause and focused exclusively on women's suffrage. I will have to do some more research.
P.S. I enjoyed watching the BBC live stream of the Olympics. Being able to watch the events in real time was wonderful. I also prefer the commentators as opposed to NBC. It wouldn't have been the same without it.
Hmm interesting. From what Aisha said even Susan B. Anthony may have asked herself 'Cui bono?' way back in the day when she was alive! I can't even say I blame her whether she was white or black honestly.
I've long heard that Martin Luther King was sexist and discounted women in his own way and even Malcolm X came across as sexist in his autobiography which I read quite a few times years ago.
But yeah too many black women have been taking up the causes for every group under the sun for too long and they like to champion every single straight black men under the sun the most.
Why the BW never ever, or ever stopped, asking themselves what was in it for them or tried to find out how they could benefit from involving themselves with other groups is beyond me.
Let them ALL sort it out for themselves black women of the world! Because when you're all crying out for help, they won't even give you a clean or even a dirty handkerchief to dab your eyes with or blow your nose with! It's just the plain truth.
Absolutely great post. Black women have their own problems to deal with. No need to fight for gays, bm etc.
Totally aggressive information you shared here i am so inspired from your blog keep continue sharing.
Thanks
The world of love and dating is complex, and matters are not always black and white.
What is acceptable to some, may seem remote or taboo to others.
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