"Cuz We Black"

I know i said the next blog would be "the mutany", but i wanted to get this off my chest and into the universe before i forgot. "cuz we black". Too many times we blame negative cultures, patterns, deliberate ignorance, down right stupidity and lack of plain old common sense on being black and keepin it real.
Like Chris Rock said, "keepin it real dumb".
As a black owned and 98% black operated business, one of my challenges is raising the level of expectations of the people who work for me. As in any salon, we have our days. You know, the ones where you just want to say, "are u serious?. are we really that petty? are we really that rediculous?". i've always been accused of being a pefectionist, sometimes anal and always too controlling. you know what, i'll accept that. if that's what it takes to get to the top, then like Muhammad Ali said, "if it means good, then i'm it". but sometimes i hear the most rediculous excuse for things i consider just plain ignorant. and i don't mean ignorant in the true sense of not knowing..but ignorant in the sense of knowing better and still not doing the right thing. i've had a staff member tell me on more than one occasion, "u can't stop that petty stuff cuz that's just how black women are". or, "that's what black people are used to in a salon". i cringed when i heard that i hate it when they actually fall back on "being black" as an expectation to do something unprofessional or just down right stupid. yeah, i said it...down right stupid. its my blog and i can say what i want. (lol) i gotta call it like i see it.
we had a staff meeting the other day...and of course i knew which people would be late. and the excuse was...as always..."you know black people always late". man i wanted to throw a chair across the room. THAT'S NO EXCUSE! i couldn't take anymore. i told them right then and there that we will no longer use "being black" as a reason, excuse or justification for doing something unprofessional or dumb. that puts our entire race on blast just cuz you cant get right. NO, its not cuz you're black. its cuz your ass don't want anything out of life outside of what you know and you scared to grow. i've heard jokes when people talk in slang one second..but as soon as the phone ring, they got this nose pinched, way too proper voice that they think sounds "white". and its funny that when a white person comes in, people sound so different when they speak to them, like they are ashamed to be who they are. after all...its a black owned business and they came in to get a service. Why are we changing our voices? Why are we tightening up our speech now? we didn't go into their establishment. they came to us. Now, for all my white clients, hispanic clients, associates and whatnot...this is not to say anything negative toward you. Keep coming in. i still love you! (LOL) i'm just callin what i see as disfunction among blacks. So,when this newfound voice appears, i hear, "i had to put on my white voice". WTF is that? were we just freed or something? are we still shuffling our feet and kicking rocks when they enter a room? hell naw. this attitude and frame of thinking is still a slave mentality. its a mentality that says, "white" equals professionalism and "black" equals labor. why is the white voice the professional voice. why can't we learn to sound professional at all times. after all, professionalism DOES NOT HAVE A COLOR!!! if anything, its green. cuz the better you are at it, the more green you'll see. so, as i was saying (sometimes my soap box gets too big), i told them that we will no longer use black as an excuse or an escape for striving for greatness or being professional. i told them, as far as i know, and whether anyone wants to admit it, black has, is and always will be the thing to be. its the standard for everything. the average age in our salon is maybe 33. how many black owned businesses with 15 employess can successfully operate a multi cultural, unisex barbershop and salon with an owner who didn't know isht two years ago? its very rare and we've done it. so when i hear what we can't do or what we aren't doing because we are black. i tell them, look at what we have accomplished, are doing and what we will become...BECAUSE WE ARE BLACK! We are achieving cooperative economics and they don't even know it. we are keeping the dollar circulating in our supreme community and they don't even realize it. one person who does hair, will send a client across the hall to get her eye brows waxed. then they'll send them down hall to get a design in her hair and then up to the front to buy a t-shirt. we are circulating the dollar within our own salon. there are so many things that we are doing that they don't realize and i'm trying to raise the consciousness of each and every one of them so that they'll realize that being black is a badge of honor not a patch of ignorance.
WE WILL BE ON TIME
WE WILL NOT USE PROFANITY
WE WILL NOT KEEP IT REAL
WE WILL TAKE OWNERSHIP OF OUR BUSINESS
WE WILL BE ACCOUNTABLE
WE WILL EXPECT TO BE THE BEST
these are all things that have no color barrier, but some think that being black gives you the right NOT do them and somehow justify it. well, not anymore. not on my watch. its Supreme Clientele, dammit..not average clientele.

and as forrest gump would say, "that's all i have to say about that".


.....or maybe i'm just too sensitive!!! (LOL)


Talk to me...
as always, keep it clean.

Peace
Ramont