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As if we don’t have enough to worry about in the workplace, here comes people firing shots who you’d think would understand the struggle.
To answer Jesse Jackson’s question, no we all just can’t get along.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t live in a world where every Black person I encounter on a professional basis and I are buddies. As with everyone else, you click with some personalities and try your best to dodge others. As much as I would love to have a “support group” of fellow sisters who experience similar workplace issues, it unfortunately doesn’t always happen. In fact, some of them can be the biggest critic and roadblocker.
A good friend of mine works in a predominately Black company and purposely applied for the position for that very reason. Wanting to focus on issues that affect the African-American community, she was so excited to be a part of her new team and hoped to gain new friendships along the way.
Wrong.
“I don’t know what I did but some of those women are just so nasty,” she told me. “I’ve never experienced such unprofessionalism.”
Obviously you can get cussed out by anyone regardless of race, so I think she was a bit overdramatic with that one, but I still understood what she was trying to say. Not every Black professional has an attitude. Granted there are some that can make us hang our heads in shame, I think this is one of the biggest misconceptions about “us” that can affect business deals. Quite frankly it’s a nasty stereotype that has the potential to damage all the hard work we try to accomplish.
Since we’re on the topic however, I can vouch that some of the toughest — and many times unnecessary — criticism I’ve received has been a “Black-on-Black” situation.
As someone self-employed, I’ve had the pleasure of working with people from all walks of life. So long as we had the same objectives in mind (get business done), I don’t care what you look like or where you come from. Throughout my professional career, I’ve learned that everyone has their own way of doing things. Some will be to your liking and others will tempt you to give the side-eye. You can’t control how people handle business and their own actions for that matter.
There have been a couple times when collaborating with other Black professionals made me quite annoyed. No matter how much you agree or disagree, certain situations just aren’t worth taking there. For some reason, certain people are either threatened by what you bring to the table, or feel a need to validate themselves by trying to act superior, which I guess can be the same thing.
Some of my “Black-on-Black” encounters have ended up with a hand in my face (yeah, really classy), a woman rattling off her resume and getting questions about my own Blackness because I focus on general areas of my industry instead of just one. What’s funny is these women never took the time to get to know me or my background and simply tried to project who they thought I was.
At the end of the day, you can’t help ignorant or stupid for that matter. I always try to operate with a basic level of respect for people, even if I don’t really like them. There’s no excuse for “acting Black” or thinking a certain attitude is okay to use with one of your own. In fact, there are folks I know who purposely try not to work with other African-Americans for this very reason. I don’t think I’ll ever go to that extreme because people are people.
Have you ever had a “Black-on-Black” situation at your workplace? If so, how did you handle it?
