The Construction Business - A monopoly for White Males??

 I was walking by a construction site in the Wellen Park area of North Port, Florida.  It is a growing area, with homes priced $400,000.  At other construction sites that involved building homes, I had noticed work crews comprised of mostly Hispanic workers.  This site was different.  The construction work appeared to be focused on clearing the vacant land and laying drainage/sewage pipes and possible electrical connections.  But, at this site I noticed an absence of minority representation.  Several miles away there is a project involving the widening of a road.  A 6 mile 52 million dollar project.  At that site the only minority worker I saw was a black man given the task of holding a sign to stop and slow traffic.  There were no visible workers operating the machinery that requires specialized skills.

I photographed the name of the construction company doing the work at Wellen Park.  After locating a point of contact, I wrote them via email asking was there a path by which minorities could get a foot in the door with their company, Phillips and Jordan.  The company prides itself on being owned by a European American female.  The response I received was to receive email notifications of the job openings within the company.  But, most of the jobs involved foreman or jobs requiring specialized skills.  Only 1-3 involved entry level type positions.  I wrote them again last week, pointing out the high requirements of the open positions and asked again was there a program designed to allow minorities or other disadvantaged people to build a career for themselves in the construction business?  My point being that one opportunity could change the lives of a family that for generations been stuck in a cycle of poverty or hopelessness.  I have yet to receive a response to my second inquiry.

The construction business has long been monopolized by white males.  Drive to any construction site and observe who works there.  Note the European American flavor to the workers on site?  So why is this industry monopolized by European American workers?  Are black and other minorities excluded from getting a foot in the door on purpose?  If so, racism still does exist.

Something Is Wrong With This Picture!

Over a week ago I was watching the Saint Louis Cardinals playing Atlanta in the National League baseball playoffs.  The game was in Atlanta, Georgia.  The nickname of the Atlanta team is “Braves”.  One of the traditions the team has is that during a rally by the home team the stadium music plays what is supposedly some type of Native American war chant.  During this game the 30,000 plus fans take the Styrofoam hatchets/tomahawks they have either been given or purchased and raise and lower them in a stereotypical fashion they assume Native Americans did years ago.  I thought to myself, “there is something offensive about what they are doing.”  Some 200 plus years after the final decimation of the Native American culture, European Americans still are insensitive to other cultures.


So what kind of chant can minorities do to get European Americans to understand the pain that some of their rituals bring out in us?  Maybe we can name a professional sports team, the European American Land Grabbers?  Then during a rally the fans to the sounds of Joe Tex’s classic song, “I Gotcha” can pretend they are taking land from a Native American or a newly freed slave.  Or option 2 is to name the team the “EnSlavers” and during rallies pretend that they are raping the wife of one of the opposing team players.  Even better would be a professional team named the “Lynch Mob”.  During rallies fans could lift up nooses that were distributed to them as they entered the stadium and point them at the opposing team’s dugout!  


There really is no need for European Americans, or those of us taught to think like European Americans, to continue to give sports teams names that are related to Native Americans.  Why do we do so?  Only because we can and don’t really know the true history of Native Americans that would give us second thoughts to doing so.  One player on the Saint Louis Cardinals team did express his displeasure with the chant, music, and tomahawk antics of the fans as supported by the team.  Then the Atlanta Braves management reduced the antics some.  But, the chant will return and the team name will continue because the Atlanta team will use the rationale of “tradition” to continue the offensive antics.


Yes, there are other professional sports teams with names related to Native Americans.  Some schools over the years have done away with such names, but others continue the madness, only because they can.  So why do those in authority and who control the name of a sports team continue with the politically incorrect naming convention?  Only because they can.

ICE immigration raids versus LAECE education raids

The United States government is sponsoring raids of households.  Not raids in foreign countries.  These are raids of homes and businesses within the United States.  The goal is to find and detain “immigrants” who will then be sent back to their country of origin.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of the Department of Homeland Security is the government organization tasked with the purging of these United States of  immigrants deemed as not having the right to be in this country.

If we have ICE, I think we also need to have LAECE (Locating Ancestors of Ethnic Cleansing and Enslavement).  The mission of LAECE would be to locate the descendants of people who committed atrocities against Native Americans and/or who enslaved people from Africa.  Once located those descendants would be informed of the actions of their ancestors.  Then they would have to appear at a public press conference and make comments regarding the actions of their ancestors. Lastly the descendants would be asked that knowing the truth what do they propose to do in the present to remove the stain of their ancestors?  As part of the process, the informing of the family would be video taped and shown as “news”.

There are many white, European American households in the United States.  Some of these households may be economically well off based on actions taken many years ago by their ancestors during the early years of the United States.  Do white, European American, families know that their ancestors may be responsible for stealing land formerly inhabited by Native Americans?  Some of their ancestors may have participated in the mistreatment, cheating, or slaughtering of Native Americans.  Do white, European American, families discuss at family reunions that they have ancestors who enslaved African American people?  Do these same families discuss how the lighter complexioned black people in the United States are based on the sexual assault/rape of African American women by possibly one or more of their ancestors?  Several of the white, European American, candidates for President have acknowledged that enslavement of African people was done by one or more of their ancestors.  Do these discussions regarding the truth happen at the family reunions of white/European American people?  If not why not?

Imagine agents of LAECE coming to the homes of white people in exclusive gated neighborhoods, the board rooms of corporations, construction sites populated by well paid white construction workers, at concerts with 20,000 plus people watching their favorite rock star, and the halls of the Congress and Senate of these United States of America.  Their purpose as agents of LAECE simply being to reveal and expose the past actions of your ancestors who enslaved people or participated in actions that forcefully removed Native Americans from their land.  The LAECE agents would provide the clear and brutal details on the actions of your ancestors.  The facts that you need to hear.  The facts you never wanted to know about.  The facts your ancestors never wanted discussed in the history lessons you were taught in school.

Just as today’s immigrants may be living in fear of a visit from agents of ICE, you also should be living in fear of a visit from agents of LAECE.  How would you feel once the story of your ancestors’ mistreatment of people is publicized and you become the target of jokes and your children bullied for being slave owners or ethnic cleansers?  Maybe that is just what this country needs.  More of the truth about the past so the racist mistakes of the present are no longer continued.  Maybe some of you already know the truth about your families past and just want the truth to remain buried?

How many millionaires have come forward and “confessed” that their ancestors enslaved people? How many owners of those downtown condominiums and million dollar homes in the suburbs have confessed that their wealth is partly due to an inheritance based on the enslavement of black people or theft of Native American lands?

Next time a white person starts a conversation with you, ask them if any of their ancestors enslaved people?  Ask them if any of their ancestors took land that was formerly possessed by Native Americans?  You are now an agent of LAECE.  Watch their facial reaction.  It’s likely the same reaction on the face of an immigrant being confronted by agents of ICE.

Beneath the Flag and the National Anthem – Symbols, traditions, and human made laws.

What do the national anthem, the flag, and the pledge of allegiance mean to me as a 60 year old black man?  In these United States, they are all symbolic creations aimed at demanding blind loyalty and devotion to the beliefs and values of European Americans. That devotion is demanded regardless of what atrocities have occurred in this country against black people. European American institutions attempt to impose these symbols upon us to define who has authority over us.  The symbols start in the school system at an early age.  These symbols and customs have found their ways into our sports entertainment. The NBA, a league where over 74% of the players are black, created specific rules to dictate how players must behave when the national anthem is played.  The motive for the creation of these rules apparently is to ensure the majority of the fans who actually attend the games, those being European Americans, are not offended by protesting black athletes.

I have no reason to be blindly devoted to a country that supported the kidnapping of my descendants from Africa to perform hard labor for European Americans.  I have no reason to be blindly supportive of a country that still to this day fails to acknowledge how it carried out the annihilation of the Native American people who were originally here.

For dialogue purposes I would like my fellow European Americans out there to answer these questions:

1.     Why should current day black descendants of enslaved people stand to honor a country where a black man can be murdered without cause by the police?

2.     Why should a black person pay respect to a country that allowed the lynching of black people and continues to allow discriminatory practices solely based on the color of a person’s skin?

3.     Do you acknowledge that your majority status in this country is based on the total obliteration of Native Americans by European Americans via illegal appropriation of their land and resources?

For me that is the starting point of any discussion on race and the protests against the flag and or the national anthem.

Does the national anthem need to be played at sporting events or any public event?  No it does not.  Sports are supposed to be a distraction from our everyday lives.  We go to watch athletes play a game that provides us entertainment.  The introduction of flag waving and national anthem playing is not why people pay to attend events. If you see someone not standing when the national anthem is playing or refusing to face the flag, understand that they have a reason for doing so.  You do not have to accept their reason, only respect it.

If military institutions want to play the anthem at military events, feel free to do so.  But stop using us non soldiers to visually show support for a country by making us stand at any event you feel demands a support of loyalty.  If democracy is about freedom then give us that freedom and do not impose loyalty tests on us at various social/entertainment events.

The issue of people protesting against the playing of the national anthem or protesting the flag of the United States of America is not a new event. In 1916 the President of the United States and then in 1931 the US Congress authorized the “Star Spangled Banner” as the official national anthem of the United States of America.  Only the first verse is traditionally sung. 

In 1892, the pledge of allegiance, which we all may have recited in elementary school, was written. It was modified in 1923, and 1954 to add specific reference to the flag of the United States and reference to God.  Prior to World War II, students in school would salute while reciting the pledge in a manner that was very similar to the German Nazi salute in World War II.  So the “Nazi” salute was replaced with a hand over the heart stance.  Actor Louis Gossett shared the story of how he would recite the pledge in school but instead of reciting the line “…for which it stands..” he would say “.. for Richard Stands…” not knowing what he was really saying!

Protests against the national anthem are documented well back into the 1900s. The reasons were many.  Anti nationalism, anti war, civil rights, even a protest against spending money on building a sports stadium rather than for a drug treatment program.  The protests were by people of various races and beliefs.

As a black man I understand fully why Colin Kaepernick said enough is enough and no longer robotically stood during the playing of the national anthem.  It was a time when month after month a black man was being killed by police. European Americans need to put themselves in our position.  How would you like it if you were systematically stopped for no real reason other than your skin color?  Would you stand for a system where the police are not trained to deal with their biases and not taught how to diffuse a situation to avoid killing someone?

Being “patriotic” always seems appropriate especially after such events as 9/11.   Patriotism that turns into blind loyalty is dangerous.  Blind loyalty fails to see the truth.  As a 60 year old black man, I recall the events of the 1960s and the civil rights era.  I still firmly believe that the protest at the 1968 Olympics by Tommie Smith and John Carlos was a courageous action.  Many people died during and before the civil rights years of the 1960s.  They died in pursuit of having the same rights as European Americans in this “land of the free”.  They spoke up against and protested against racial discrimination.  Unfortunately some of the civil rights struggles that existed in the 1960s continue today.  That is why people like Colin Kaepernick take a stand.  That is why a black man like myself does not feel obliged to stand and place my hand over my heart as the national anthem is played.

Federal Government Systemic Discrimination? - Defense Finance and Accounting Services Indianapolis

In concept, the federal government should have the best human resources system.  It is through the human resources system that people are hired to carry out the many programs managed by the federal government. The best qualified and skilled people should be hired.  Racial discrimination should not be a factor in hiring decisions.

Within the first 10 of  my 35 years working in human resources I discovered that it does not matter what you know, it matters who you know. Race does matter.  European Americans are at an advantage because they normally oversee the human resources systems. No matter what people tell you, racial discrimination in hiring does exist.  Disparate treatment of people does occur based on racial considerations.

I recently found out that my former employer, Human Resources at Defense Finance and Accounting Services (DFAS) in Indianapolis, Indiana decided to rehire several former employees who had retired in the past 5 years.  True to form they did not seek to rehire any black male employees who had been outspoken about discrimination existing in the hiring policies of human resources.

Human Resources carefully followed the letter of the law in how they hired the retired European American males, and those black females whom they favored.  They abided by the systemic loopholes that allowed them to not consider several black males who were more than qualified to be rehired as a retired annuitant.  In my years of working at DFAS they were always careful to avoid breaking the laws.  But ethically behind the scenes rules were bent, stretched, and interpreted to maintain European American dominance. These actions adversely impacted black males.  The retired European American males financially benefited from being European American.  They were contacted by the agency for the purpose of rehiring them.   Former black male employees were not even made aware of the availability of the job openings because they were not wanted. Yes, it is that simple.

During my 35 years in human resources I saw many examples of how European American employees were treated differently than how a black employee would have been treated.  In one instance a married European American male supervisor (who worked in human resources) violated an ethical principle for supervisors and engaged in an affair with one of the employees he supervised.  This resulted in inappropriate conduct both at the workplace and outside the workplace.  Normally a supervisor would have been fired for such conduct.  The woman whom the supervisor had an affair with (an intern) was fired by human resources.  The supervisor was demoted in pay but was able to maintain his employment with DFAS.  In the years since the incident happened, the supervisor has been promoted several time  to almost reach the level he was at when he was demoted.  Both of the employees in this instance were European American.  What do you think would have happened if the supervisor was a black male and having an affair with a European American female?

In another incident a black male in an administrative position was fired for supposedly engaging in work place violence against his supervisor.  The employee in frustration did wrongfully touch his European American female supervisor and shook her.  He did the unthinkable, touch a European American female and that cannot be tolerated.  I recall listening to his supervisor and one of her employees conspiring out loud in a work place violence training class on how to frame a case for the employee's removal under the guise that he was a possible threat.  It was the "angry black man" excuse.

There were many other cases where Human Resources did not pursue disciplinary action against male European Americans for incidents of improper conduct. But if the employee was black, the case would be actively pursued applying the severest penalty possible.

For anyone who is going into the federal sector as a way to make a living I stress caution.  Especially if your agency consists of majority European Americans.  There is money to be made in federal jobs. It is a resource avenue where you can make a good living from your salary.  Some people use the system to benefit their friends, acquaintances, and family members.  For them the rules about affirmative action and diversity just get in the way of their selfishness to reward people they like or to reward people who look like them.  When you feel you have been wronged question the decision and how the rules were applied in making the decision.

Be aware that systemic discrimination has become an intrinsic part of federal agencies hiring systems.  The Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) staffs that many agencies have are just an administrative office created to give the semblance of fairness and that someone is keeping the system honest.  EEO staffs are not keeping the system honest because no one in management wants them to.  What you can do if you are employed by the federal government is to learn your trade and become an employee who is needed.  If you are an asset that is valued you will receive less mistreatment.  That does not mean you will be rehired if you should leave voluntarily, but it will make it more difficult to explain why you were not sought for reemployment!