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Clavell Jackson: People of Color, Women Can’t Afford to Be Average
EURWeb ^ | November 27, 2014 | Clavell Jackson

Posted on 11/27/2014 9:59:02 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

*I have previously written several articles about how most Americans are pretty clueless. The results of the last elections showed that. A lot of Americans stayed home, and people from states that depend heavily on government programs, such as food stamps, welfare and social security, elected Republicans — the very people who have said they plan to slash these programs.

MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, the architect of Obamacare, caught flak for referring to American voters as stupid, but he is right. Bill Maher, who is known for his biting comedy, recently ran a video montage showing all the times he had also expressed that Americans are stupid. If you need any further evidence of this, a recent YouTube video showed some Texas Tech students who were unable to answer basic questions, such as which side won the Civil War or who was the vice president. Of course, they all knew what show Snookie was on.

As much as we can laugh at these videos, there is something serious going on here. I don’t think people of color and women can afford to be that stupid. They need to be at the top of their game academically. White men will do fine, no matter how dumb they are. If they wear the right clothes, join the right country clubs and stick it out long enough, they will eventually get shunted up the ladder in Corporate America. George W. Bush is a great example. Bush never showed any great academic talent, but still graduated from two Ivy league schools. And after several failed businesses, he finally struck gold with the Texas Rangers, managed to get elected governor of Texas and used his family connections to win the presidency. The good-old boy network is alive and kicking.

I have worked alongside a lot of white men in Corporate America, and while they dominate the field, they are not always the best workers. I’ve seen white men who sexually harassed co workers, refused to show up to work on their first day and showed downright incompetence, yet they weren’t fired. The other white men in Corporate America will generally cut them some slack or overlook their flaws, until it reaches a breaking a point.

Other groups don’t have that opportunity. People of color and women are expected to be darn near perfect in Corporate America. Screw up a few times and you will be out the door. Chris Rock talked about this in an interview for the HBO documentary film “The Black List.” He said he lived on the same street as Jay-Z, and a white guy was his neighbor. The white neighbor was just an ordinary dentist. Rock pointed out he and Jay-Z were at the top of their games in their respective fields, but their neighbor was just an average dentist.

When quizzed about their lack of diversity, CEOs often say they can’t find qualified graduates of color. I find this hard to believe considering all the colleges that are churning out graduates. It is also a false argument because a lot of the white graduates they hire are not the cream of the crop, but they still employ them anyway.

So while white men can still flourish, in spite of being average academically, people of color cannot afford to follow in their footsteps. They need to excel in class. President Barack Obama is a great example. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, and yet people still accuse him of being incompetent.

Black people have to be not only book smart, but street smart. A young black man not only has to know how to succeed academically, but also how to avoid the long of the arm law. They have to learn how to navigate the tortuous American criminal justice system and avoid “riding dirty.” Black men are also taught to be very careful in dealings with America’s trigger happy police force, who have a habit of killing them. Black men who decide to rely on street smarts alone often realize they need book learning, especially when they are faced with complex, sports/entertainment contracts. Ignoring the business side of show business is how many entertainers and athletes go broke.

Women are often held up to a higher standard than white men too. Sarah Palin was a good example of a woman who benefitted from white privilege, but also suffered the backlash of sexism. She was unqualified to be vice president, but no one ever asked how someone as dim as her ever got to be a heartbeat away from the presidency? There is no way a person of color, with her kind of baggage, would ever get that chance. And while Palin was pilloried for her lack of intelligence, the press went easier on Dan Quayle and George W. Bush, who were not intellectual titans. Being white men, they were given a bye, after all they looked the part. They had greying hair, played golf and looked good in a business suit. They fit in at the country club. There are plenty of people in Congress who are plain stupid, such as Reps. Steve King and Louie Gohmert, but they still seem to get elected.

White men might bleat about their supposed loss of status, but they still have a firm grip on the reins of power. (They’re just mad that they don’t have 100 percent of the pie anymore.) No matter what pseudo-news outlets such as Breitbart.com and FOX News say, the black and brown people and women are not taking over — at least not yet. According to Diversity, Inc., 1.2 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are black and only nine black men have ever been elected to the U.S. Senate. White men, even the mediocre, ones are doing just fine.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: blacks; bush; economy; gruber; obama; palin; whiteprivilege; whites
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How come I haven't been "shunted up the ladder in Corporate America" guys? I was cheated!!
1 posted on 11/27/2014 9:59:02 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

To be young, gifted, and black.


2 posted on 11/27/2014 10:03:27 AM PST by MUDDOG
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“People of color and women are expected to be darn near perfect in Corporate America. Screw up a few times and you will be out the door.”

Is this a joke? “People of color and women” are given jobs and promotions far beyond their abilities to stave off lawyers; nobody expects anything from them (from high school to the boardroom). Nobody is ALLOWED to expect anything from them...


3 posted on 11/27/2014 10:03:47 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Let me help Clavelle out with something. American democrat voters are stupid.


4 posted on 11/27/2014 10:04:00 AM PST by exnavy (Fish or cut bait ...Got ammo, Godspeed!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

... still dumping on poor ol’President “W” Bush - these people will not grow up!


5 posted on 11/27/2014 10:05:15 AM PST by Ken522
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Clavell Jackson: People of Color, Women Can’t Afford to Be Average

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...ETC


6 posted on 11/27/2014 10:05:26 AM PST by TalBlack (Evil doesn't have a day job.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

White men can’t jump.


7 posted on 11/27/2014 10:05:51 AM PST by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!!)
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To: MUDDOG

“When quizzed about their lack of diversity, CEOs often say they can’t find qualified graduates of color. I find this hard to believe considering all the colleges that are churning out graduates.”

Can they read (either print or cursive)? Speak? Can they send a coherent email?

I’ve seen these “graduates” and work with them; in a “white” grammar school thirty years ago they’d be at about a fourth-grade level in reading, writing, and arithmetic.


8 posted on 11/27/2014 10:06:54 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Ken522

Well, they can’t afford to be racist, whiney, rich-blaming, complaining people who can’t speak clearly in English, disrespectful to the customers and advocating burning things down. And dammit, if it weren’t for all those racist rich Republicans who pay the wages, they COULD BE!


9 posted on 11/27/2014 10:07:16 AM PST by 50sDad (A Liberal prevents me from telling you anything here.)
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To: kearnyirish2

And do they hold contempt for their customers and the people who employ them?


10 posted on 11/27/2014 10:08:07 AM PST by 50sDad (A Liberal prevents me from telling you anything here.)
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To: MUDDOG

This article is an example of people living in different worlds.

To many of us, minorities have never had it better in America. We look at policies such as affirmative action, and think to ourselves, that a black woman veteran, for example, can write her own ticket. We perceive that due to affirmative action, it will be difficult to discipline or terminate a member of a recognized minority group.

This writer lives in a world in which white men are perceived to have so many advantages in life, and that things are handed to them on a silver platter. Many of us would take issue with his premise.


11 posted on 11/27/2014 10:08:26 AM PST by Dilbert San Diego (s)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I say dumb GWB scored higher on his SAT than Obama. If Obama had high SAT marks they would have been released. The legal fight to keep them secret tells me all I need to know.
12 posted on 11/27/2014 10:10:49 AM PST by CaptainK (...please make it stop. Shake a can of pennies at it.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Contrast the people in her picture above with the people we saw in the streets of Ferguson. One big problem holding them back: Many (if not most) of the people protesting in Ferguson are deathly afraid of being accused of “acting white,” so will never do the things they should do to improve their lot.


13 posted on 11/27/2014 10:11:27 AM PST by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
President Barack Obama is a great example. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, and yet people still accuse him of being incompetent.

Words fail me. Funny though, when Obama was at Harvard, he was made editor of the Law Review even though he never published a single article. Not one.

So he succeeded by actually being below average, because he was black.

The same way he succeeded in getting re-elected while being well below average as an executive and CIC.

14 posted on 11/27/2014 10:11:31 AM PST by Maceman
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
White men will do fine, no matter how dumb they are.

Yes, it's just magic! The 5 or 6% of the global population that are white males just have the whole world on cruise control. That's why the almost 90% of the world that is not white just cannot get to countries filled with white males fast enough.

In fact I would bet willing to be that the rate of immigration into any given country is directly proportional to the percentage of white males in that country.

Prove me wrong. The US, which has more white males than any other single country, has more immigration in any given year than all the rest of the countries in the world combined. In fact, ONLY majority white countries have positive rates of immigration

Just eaten alive with racist hate for the white male? Go to another country!

15 posted on 11/27/2014 10:12:56 AM PST by spodefly (This is my tag line. There are many like it, but this one is mine.)
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If they are so awesome and have to be twice as good, then where is the list of innovations, scientific and technical achievements?


16 posted on 11/27/2014 10:13:10 AM PST by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ. In the US the number is 54%i)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I don’t doubt the author’s sincerity. She’s too unintelligent to realize that she’s unintelligent. A common theme with her demographic.


17 posted on 11/27/2014 10:13:23 AM PST by American Guesser
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To: Dilbert San Diego

What a bunch of pap. The main discrimination in many positions is against Caucasian men. They have no recourse.


18 posted on 11/27/2014 10:14:18 AM PST by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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To: 50sDad

Nobody’s chasing them down to employ them; lawsuits can be avoided by hiring Hispanics instead. I’ve seen departments that were mostly black a dozen years ago flip to mostly Hispanic (and the “surviving” blacks are furious about it).


19 posted on 11/27/2014 10:15:52 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Dilbert San Diego
things are handed to them on a silver platter.

Bingo. The underlying assumption of the article is that there's some magical pot of gold out there, and it's unfair that whites get more than blacks.

There's no consideration given to where the goodies actually come from. They're just there to be divvied up.

It's like the Obama voter after the 2008 election who talked about all the benefits she was going to get. When asked where it would come from, she paused a moment, and then said, "Obama's stash."

20 posted on 11/27/2014 10:17:09 AM PST by MUDDOG
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