Immigration isn't a "right," it's a contract, bargain or exchange.
We benefit by you bringing your skills and contributions, and your enthusiasm and commitment to our country's values and culture. You benefit by being able to participate in our country and our culture, and everything it has to offer.
When one side of this exchange is not being fulfilled, something needs to be done. And that's just as true for when a country isn't holding up its side - e.g. Qatar and UAE's use of forced labor - as when immigrants aren't holding up theirs.
This is what my Black woman VP boss said to a queer Black gender non-conforming person. #😳 And let's get it out of the way, the whyte liberal would have a hair-trigger response and spout something to the effect of, you're being too sensitive. But am I?
Two-thousand fourteen was the last job in corporate America that I worked at, and yes I don't have to do any complex math because that is ten years ago. I was over-qualified for the position and paid at least sixty percent less than my standard rate. I remember clearly a twenty-something fellow employee asking me how I had accomplished something that was obviously eluding him when my current tasks were his responsibility. I said I talked to people and we came up with a solution to the backlog.
Part of being too grown and too experienced, is that folks who are twice your junior take much longer to execute and figure out challenges, which are somewhat effortless for you. Per my standing preference I didn't work more than forty hours and performed a job that was over a month behind deadlines and got it all cleared up in less than ten days. #NotABadBitchJustDamnedGood
But my approach wasn't what the youthful employees had done before, I got up from behind my computer, left my desk and went to go see people, my 'clients' as we called them. I am a great believer in face-time and the importance of looking folks in the eye, listening the timber of their voice, and noticing their body language. All of these are a part of the emotional intelligence I have developed while working in whyte corporate America, I use my natural empathy in a way that probably isn't prescribed or best practice, but it ultimately gets the job done, efficiently and quickly.
But I do not look like everyone else in corporate America, and mind you this particular company was quite Black and also queer, I may have been a note too fabulous for this space, albeit it was in essence a creative space. This is part of my becoming more myself as I mature, I remain unapologetic in my approach to the world, how I present myself and this was reflected in my daily fashion which spoke to my unique voice as much as anything.
I don't think anything I wore was outlandish or even unprofessional in a business casual office where some folks would literally wear shorts and t-shirts to work everyday. I had one of my clients say to me after I was told her I couldn't see her any more because of my excessive visibility, was that she enjoyed seeing what I was wearing everyday and our brief check-ins, she felt she knew exactly where we stood on any particular project that we were working on and it left her free to focus on other real issues.
The thing I loved about this very whyte, heteromantic and patriarchal world was that unlike my past in the non-profit sector I was paid a more than livable wage, and I was able to usually utilize my mind, not my body to do my work. My real question is, what does it matter what I wear if I satisfactorily execute my job responsibilities? I will never get an answer to that question, so it will remain rhetorical.
I recall my working at one place maybe not even two weeks when the boss there seemed to admire my freelance mentality and quit. We had previously talked about how I like the off-and-on of contract work, I'd work a couple of months in one place and then take a trip to South America for a month, or three months somewhere else and go to Africa for ten days. The gigs were short enough for me to stay pleasant all throughout because my time was only temporary. Clearly she was sold and wanted to make a lifestyle change herself. #WasThatMyFault?
Looking back on all of this and where I am now I have no regrets, the next time I would be employed would be twenty-twenty, six year later, hundreds if not thousands of emails sent out, dozens of interviews, but not one closing. I wasn't as young as I used to be, quite a few positions I was also over-qualified for even with trimming my resume considerable to appear 'younger', but I think I had become TOO BLACK, TOO QUEER and TOO GENDER NON-CONFORMING. I refused to dim my light or alter my behavior to make whyte people more comfortable with my very overt Africaness, and I was unapologetic about it all.
Today I live off the interest from my investments, I wear what I want, I sleep as late as I please, and my days are filled with the thing I want to do and the folks I want to fuck with, and I needn't attempt to diminish myself in any way to conform to anyones anything. No one should have to change themselves to be suitable to work, if they have the education, experience and abilities. Folk should be hired on their merits and the fact that they can execute the job, not by how comfortable or uncomfortable they make you, or if they know your friends little friend. Nepotism has become the law of the land if you want to work in this country, and I am so pleased its a practice I don't have to fuck with anymore.
scopOphilic_micromessaging_559 - scopOphilic1997 presents a new micro-messaging series: small, subtle, and often unintentional messages we send and receive verbally and non-verbally.
Anne Marie Left her job to live her life unapologetically in her way. Though she was scared after leaving her job but was more frightening before, to live in a hostile environment. Read The Infographics or go through the blog for more.
Perhaps you won’t be surprised to discover that I am unemployed. I wonder, is this where all unemployed people go? Is Tumblr a mecca for unemployed souls in need of respite? A purgatory for the jobless? I should definitely investigate this question further, I certainly have the time to do so.
Anyway, I’m unemployed but, yesterday, as I was in my millionth thought about being unemployed the question entered my mind: what if I’m unemployable? This was a scary question because it moved my joblessness from a status to a characteristic. I’ve gone from doing to being and that transition should always be acknowledged.
I’ve started reading Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” because, well, I’m unemployed and potentially unemployable. Reading Covey later rather than never seems the right move to make right now (am I right?). Anyway, in the first section of his book, Covey discusses the need to change paradigm, to understand what underlying assumptions and expectations we have and to explore their origins and implications (at least, that’s how I’m reading him). So, when I went from being unemployed to unemployable, it scared me. It’s scary because it means that being an employee is quintessential to who I am. So, what does that mean if I retire one day? Or am no longer able to work? What does it mean for the people I see who are not working? How do I understand them? And these questions, of course, raise larger questions. The world is complex. Life is complex. Problems are complex. Answers are complex.
There are people who are unemployed because they choose to be. There are people who do not choose to be unemployed but are. Either way, are these people unemployable? Is it even possible to be unemployable? And, if so, what does that mean? What does it say about our society? Our understanding of self? What is the nature of the relationships between employer and employee? What is the nature of the relationship between jobs and society? The nature between employment and dignity? When did I move from doing to being?
