An Open Letter To All Black People That Talk Black...

To Whom It May Concern...

Let me start by saying that when I'm around white people in a "professional" setting, I don't talk black. It takes a lot for me to talk black in general. In order to understand that, you have to understand something about the Heartland in general. Not to be confused with the Midwest, the Heartland is it's own entity. Where the Midwest is a bubble, the Heartland is a vacuum, and it sucks the soul out of everything that it can.

That said, when Southern blacks migrate to the Heartland, they do so in hopes of clean streets, decent education, and low crime, and the Heartland does offer such things, but it also makes sure that you give up certain aspects of your culture for you to properly take advantage of these benefits. You lose your accent, your hair becomes more tame, your mannerisms less loud, you settle into the quiet life, a more acceptable representation of your true self. You do this with the knowledge that just maybe you can get a decent job, and maybe your children will be able to have a little more access, and their's a little more.

Some prescribe to these changes, and others don't, but for the ones who do, there are two specific reasons. One, to assimilate. Why bite the hand that feeds you? Two, to overtake. Because the hand that feeds us has malnourished us for far too long.

I'm of the 2nd set you see, I'm an observer of people, and I will follow the rules until the opportunity arises to use those rules against the general system. I'm a complainer you see, I do the same thing, day in and day out without ever advancing, and this would be completely my fault if it wasn't for the general lack of expectations from my supervisor. So I complain that I don't get any training, but I don't actively seek training, because it should come standard. I complain that I'm the only person who doesn't work at the front desk, but when front desk positions open, I don't apply because it's in my job description, I should already be doing it.

All of this is a very long and drawn out way to introduce the following situation.

I was at the front desk (I finally got promoted to a night audit position which puts me at the front desk from the hours of 11pm-7am, basically drunk/bootycall patrol) and I was there with some girls from the night shift who were going home, as well as my coworkers from my shift. A black family comes in and I always love seeing black people at our hotel. It's a fairly expensive hotel so I enjoy seeing our people able to afford it. I went to my pod and greeted them,

"Good evening! Welcome to [hotel brand], are you checking in?" The mother looked at me oddly and finally said yes. I asked her last name and when she gave it to me, I recognized it as a reservation I made.

"Oh, Mrs. [last name]! I made your reservation, I'm glad you got here safely!"

"You made my reservation?" I nod, and suddenly everything went very badly.

"Yes I did. I spoke with you on the phone." I point to my nametag, "My name is [Sticky]."

"Really? Dang you sounded like a white girl on the phone, I thought you was white!"

Le Sigh.

Okay, it doesn't seem like a big deal, but let me re-set the atmosphere for you. There was the black family. There were 5 of my co-workers including my immediate supervisor. Then there was me. Did I mention I'm the only person of color in the front office? Did I mention that there have been exactly 2 other people of color at the front office in the past 5 years? So when the question of "Black" comes up at work, I am the answer.

The problem with them saying that is that it puts me on the wrong half of the changes spectrum. I instantly lose all of the cool I built up because it seems to my coworkers that my struggle for blackness is lacking. Here I am, being told I'm not black, by people who are blacker than me. Instead of being of the 2nd sect as explained above, I get lumped into the first sect. The white people stop seeing me as a hindrance, and start seeing me as an ally.

Because then to them, I become that black person. The one that they invite to every party, and expect me to show up, because I'm the kind of person that would go to those parties and drink my glass of beer and maybe mingle. But I'm not there as a guest, I'm there as color, as an accent to prove that they have black friends. They train me for promotions, but they make sure I know that the only way I'll get the promotion is if the quota filler they already have quits. So I make them look multicultural, and they make it look like their looking out for my best interests.

I think the main thing that happens is that putting me in the first sect makes me seem like I like white people, and understand them, but I don't, and I won't. You see, I hate white people just as much as the black family in front of me hated white people. And I must stress that I mean that in the most general of senses. I don't hate people because they are white, I hate the definition of what being white has become. It means better than, greater but not equal to. That's what I hate. There are several cool white folk, and Lord knows living in Lincoln, they are hard to find, but they're there. They use their white priviledge to change the world. They look out for the interests of "people" and not just themselves. Which, when put in a position of power, is what you should do. So really, I'm just happy that they're doing their jobs.

So what did I do? There were several options, but I had to choose one that would remain professional, for these were guests, and would allow me to regain my status. So I smiled, gave a little wink and said,

"Oh I just did that to welcome you to Nebraska. I didn't want you to think you were in the wrong place or anything!" Then I gave my best comic view laugh and the woman laughed and her family laughed, and I looked at my co-workers who looked confused and I knew I had done my job. Because where we were two separate entities, now we were one force.

So in conclusion, it may seem small black people, it may seem non-important, but please don't bust out your brothers and sisters in front of white people. It will cause way too much extra work on their behalf. If they sound white, they are doing it for a reason, just go with it, and let them know you're on their side.

One Love,

StickyKeys