2024 Racism

As a Black woman of a certain age I’m not embarrassed to say in the past, I have benefited from the use of Affirmative Action. As a veteran, likewise, I, in the past, benefited from Affirmative Action.

Despite the inaccurate belief of many White peoples, Affirmative Action and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion does not place unqualified candidates in positions they otherwise would not have been considered for in the workforce or educational system. On the contrary, the individuals who benefit from those programs are qualified but otherwise would have been overlooked, excluded or discarded due to their race.

During the time period I reaped the benefits of Affirmative Action our government was fond of testing for job positions. In 1981 I took the military entrance exam for the Army. I scored 96% out of 100%. My Army recruiter walked me 3 doors down and handed me off to an Air Force recruiter who, upon looking over my scores told me I could have just about any job I wanted in the Air Force. The job I asked for was Computer Programming Specialist.

I was the only Black student in my military technological class. I failed the very first round of classes because I offended my White male instructor. Prior to the military, I attended a computer science course at Devry Institute of Technology and had some programming knowledge prior to tech school.

He told my classmates, after he failed me, he didn’t fail me because I didn’t know what I was doing, he failed me for daring to suggest there were easier ways to complete the class assignments than he was teaching, and in fact, not only were there easier ways, I gladly showed the entire class. The man was teaching a sort routine called a bubble sort which could literally be composed of dozens upon dozens of lines as opposed to a five or six line If-Then-Else statement that would do the same thing.

The problem was that you could only fail one portion of the programming course. A second failure would automatically exclude you from the course. My learning style was at odds with the teaching style of the next instructor I had. As a result, I struggled with the Assembler coding language. When my new instructor informed the previous instructor who failed me that there was a high likelihood that I would flunk out of the course because of his decision to fail me, he did everything he could to ensure I didn’t flunk out, not because he felt bad about his decision, but because she said if I failed she would be reporting him for discrimination against me that could be verified by every student of my previous class, which could have an effect on his pension from the Air Force.

With his help I passed the Assembler language portion of the course. I encountered no further problems throughout the remainder of the course. He admitted to me that he felt I was an Affirmative Action hire who was only allowed into the Computer Programming Specialist program because I was Black. In defense of his actions, he looked up my high school transcript as well as my transcript from Devry and was surprised to learn I was an “A” student. He was also surprised to learn I scored 96% on my military entrance exam. So while he was correct in believing I was an Affirmative Action hire, I also was extremely qualified for the position I was given.

When I moved on to my first duty station at Langley Air Force Base I was one of three Black people in our programming department, although one was being transferred to a new duty station. At 21 years old, I was the youngest person in our department by over a decade. The people I worked with, White males, considered me to be an Affirmative Action hire because they all had to reenlisted two to four times to have the “opportunity” to train as a Computer Programming Specialist while I, during my first enlistment, was given the opportunity to train in the position they coveted. In their minds, the only way I could have been given an opportunity they were repeatedly denied was to be an Affirmative Action hire.

This belief pattern was repeated at my next duty station in Misawa Japan. It was so fiercely believed, that due to my outspoken personality and refusal to back down when unjustly challenged I not only endured a Court Martial trial, which I won, but was also given a poor performance review to encourage me to separate from the military, which I did.

As a civilian, in 1987 I took the civil service exam for Computer Programming Analyst for my county. I scored a solid #5 of 150 applicants. Even without the additional points given for being a Black female veteran, I still tested at #5 of 150 applicants. When I walked my chocolate self into the building, I encountered shock and disbelief. My name, education and military history screamed White woman to management, so when my manager came out to greet me, he was looking for a White woman. The color visibly drained from his face when he asked the receptionist where I was and she pointed to little old chocolate me. Later that day I accidentally overheard the discussion about the new Affirmative Action hire.

For three months I received no training or introduction to our department’s Job Control Language or IBM system despite their knowing I previously worked on Univac and Honeywell systems nor was I given one piece of work or allowed to sign into any portion of our programming system to familiarize myself with our system in hopes it would encourage me to quit. They believed I was an unqualified Affirmative Action hire and were surprised to learn that not only was I qualified, I completed my work quickly and was asked to train all new hires until I refused to continue doing so over a denied promotion. My punishment was to no longer be given work for a full decade from 1999 to 2009, in hopes I would quit, I didn’t. When they finally began giving me work again, instead of mainframe programming, I was given PC languages they knew I was unfamiliar with that had been taught to other employees; I completed all my work on time or ahead of time, and never missed a deadline. I retired in 2016 with 80% of the average of my last four years of salary.

Was I an Affirmative Action hire? Yes. I, like so many other people of color, was an Affirmative Action hire throughout my entire professional career who was highly qualified despite never being treated as if I were.

Last year we were inundated with White complaints of teaching White children Critical Race Theory despite CRT being a college course that has never been taught to any child of any race under the age of 18 who was not in college AND signed up to take the course on their own as a supplement to Law School. In truth, the complaints by these White people who opposed CRT were actually fearful of their children learning true United States of America history which portrayed the pioneers, founding fathers and enslavers as the flawed, cruel, hedonistic and greedy people they were who committed crimes against humanity.

This shame of United States history is born of the alignment with people who committed crimes against humanity on unmeasured large scale. To admit those people committed unmeasurable crimes against humanity and garner them respect is to stand in unity with their crimes against humanity, so our country tells lies of omission, myths and fairytales regarding the true history of the United States. If the history of the United States was something to be celebrated and be proud of there would be no reason to omit any part of our nation’s history; no reason to lie, make up myths or fairytales.

Recently conversations on Affirmative Action and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion have brought up lies of the unqualified. Charlie Kirk said, “If I see a black pilot, I’m going to be like, ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified,’”. Candice Owens, who regularly jumps on the White supremacy bandwagon despite being black, not only said she’s “terrified” of female pilots but also said "I remarked that now when I even am watching a commercial, if I see a commercial and I see a Black person, a Hispanic person, an Asian person, my thought process is 'Did they just get this because DEI?' I no longer think the person is qualified." In truth she likely never thought they were qualified.

As a Black female who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s I both knew and know literally hundreds of Affirmative Action hires and dozens upon dozens more who fall under DEI hire. In my experience, the people who fall into those categories not only are qualified, many are over qualified. I have known many people, Black, Asian and Hispanic, who were told they were not hired because they were over qualified. I can’t count the people who have had perfect phone interviews only to be told upon arriving for the in person interview the position was just filled prior to their arrival.

Yet I have personally known White men unqualified for the positions they held due to political clout or nepotism. I worked with a White male who single handedly used the entire department’s overtime budget, yet was able to retain his position. I worked with another White male which my manager would as me to review program specifications to determine if he would be capable of completing the assignment independently. Sadly, many times not only was the answer no he couldn’t, the manage, who also was a White male, couldn’t make the determination on his own.

The fact that a POC student could excel in college when competing with White students who were exposed to educational resources that were denied the POC students is nothing short of a miracle that should be given additional considerations. Those students are by no means unqualified but in reality are likely more qualified, otherwise they would never be capable of coming within striking distance of those given a superior education. The same process takes place in the interview room, no employer is going to hire an unqualified POC. The inability to adequately perform the job would have dire consequences, implications and repercussions that would affect the overall job performance of every employee working with that person as well as the financial bottom line, which we all realize is far more important than any appearance of equitable hiring despite not having the same effect when the person is White. Yet 159 years after the end of slavery descendants of the enslaved are still considered unqualified to do anything other than pick cotton for free.

By the way, the Tuskegee Airmen were the most sought after flight support team by WWII pilots entering enemy territory and from the search I did on google there were zero plane crashes with Black pilots or co-pilots

Nearly 60 years ago Dr. Martin Luther King dreamt of an United States which would judge his children by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. That dream is no closer to being a reality than it was 56 years ago when he dreamed about that dream.

I’ve been out of high school 45 years, yet unlike my grandchild I was taught science, civics, social studies and history. Despite the fact that my books were outdated and worn, unlike my grandchild I had books. The vast majority of Black communities across the United States are food deserts, indicating not only do grocers not want Black citizens to eat, political representation is in agreement with them.

Across the nation literally millions of citizens are both preparing and anticipating the cold Civil War that has been waged 159 years to go hot. They have a desire to kill their neighbors and countrymen, ensuring this country is anything but united.

When the French gifted the Statue of Liberty to the United States, it was meant to embrace the broken chains of slavery and oppression with the broken shakle on her ankle and her original features were that of a Black woman. Sadly, the same mentality that rejected the original design of Lady Liberty not only is alive and well, but being fostered to poison our nation’s future.