For the record, I support the use of black support staff in majority white workplaces.... I hate the sympathy factor that so many of my colleagues feel the need to give the other blacks in the workplace. Then they treat me like somehow, I'm not "one of them" because I have a degree.. As much as you try to carry yourself in a manner that race doesn't matter to you, and you work hard to perform well, as if to say, regardless of where I have my degree from , who I went to school with, and what color my skin is, I'm good at what I do. But race does matter to other people. It matters to the other blacks in my office.
I have a dilemma. See there are only two black architects in our whole office. All of the other blacks work the front desk, deliver the mail, do the printing, etc... you know, the support staff. It's cool to be down with the support staff for the simple fact that I'm black. They carry a certain pride in seeing me have my degree, etc... and always let me know that "if one of them white boys fucks with you, I'll fuck with his mail/printing/etc..." What they don't get is that fucking up someone else's printing doesn't help me, it hurts them! When I need something printed, my print requests go to the top of the list. When I get a fax in the office, it get's delivered immediately. When the people who have been fired forget to forward their magazine subscriptions to their new jobs, the mail guy brings them to me.... and he doesn't waste my time with none of those bullshit trade magazines, only the cool expensive imported shit, they know the deal.
While other people complain about how lazy and dumb our support staff is, I just sit back and laugh because I know. They aren't lazy, they just don't appreciate being talked down to, therefore, yo fax is going to have to wait, so what ends up happening is something like this, "Gotdammit, this fax came in two hours ago!! why am I just now getting it???!!!!" "my fault dawg, I was busy." I know I get my faxes right away. It could be because I treat everyone like a human, or it could be the bottle of Jack or subscription to Vibe I gave them for Christmas, but there are definitely perks to being cool with the support staff.
But every once in a while, that shit goes too far. Sometimes, they think they can just stop by your desk to talk shit about the new Jay-Z or ask you if you've seen the R. Kelley video because they "can hook it up on DVD for you if you want". It's like, we're cool, but we're not THAT cool ya know? and you can't just blow them off because then they'll go tell all the other brothas that they THOUGHT you were down, but you ain't REALLY down... So you have to learn how to walk that thin line between cool yet professional...
Then something like this happens that tests my boundaries....
For some reason, to make things more efficient, they gave the support staff their own computers with e-mail and internet acess so when people needed things, they could just send them an e-mail rather than try to track them down to get some pens. It doesn't matter that by they time they complain for an hour about how they can't find the mailroom guy, they could've walked their ass around the corner to get the new pens their damn self.... anyway. THEY SHOULDA NAVE GAVE DEM NIGGAS COMPUTERS!! (In my best Dave Chapelle Rick James voice) This is a new thing for some, so the e-mail etiquette isn't quite there yet. Please view the most recent e-mail I was copied on from a member of the support staff to all the blacks in the office:
-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx
To: xxxxx; xxxxx; xxxxx; Curtis
Subject: FW: porn star Lara Roxx tested HIV Positive as well
from Adult Video News
Lara Roxx Diagnosed as HIV-Positive
By: Scott Ross
04-15-2004
CHATSWORTH, Calif. - As feared, one of the women who worked with Darren James has tested HIV-positive. Lara Roxx, one of three Canadians in the first-generation, has just been confirmed positive by the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM).
Roxx, who is either 18 or 19-years-old, performed in a mini-gang bang scene with Darren James, Mark Anthony, Maxxx Black on March 24. Anthony and Black performed a double anal with Roxx, as part of that scene. Black is now quarantined as a member of a new line of the virus.
Black has since performed with Rayveness, who is now considered in second-generation of this new line of the virus and quarantined as well.
Roxx had only been in the adult industry for three months. Her scene with James and Anthony was her first double anal.
Her agent Daniel Perreault, the agent who handles the women for the Eromodel Group, told Roxx not to come to Los Angeles on this trip, saying he didn't believe she was ready yet. She came anyway.
In another development in James' line of the virus, John Strong has been identified as a person who worked with Banesca, one of the women in the first-generation of that line. Strong has been placed on the quarantine list.
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First of all, why does my man receives the adult video news??? But then I receive the following hilarious reply from the guy in the print room....
------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxxxxxx
To: Curtis , xxxxxxxxx, xxxxxx; xxxxxxxxx
Subject: you gotta be kiddin me?
"double anal" -- that shit is highly suspect. HIGHLY."
i mean, you're standard dp, you got some membrane betwixt you and the next cat, but still, there's high probability for slapping some ball bearings. but 2 in one orifice? raw diggy?
does. not. compute.
and this chick is in her 3rd month in the biz? wtf? did she take AP dick placement in high school or something? cause that sounds like some post-graduate pnrgraphy right there.
peace & blessings,
-------------------
.............. I don't make this stuff up...... How could I? I feel like Charlie Murphy up in here...
The reply is hilarious, yet sad on so many levels I can barely begin to explain it. Not to mention the fact that there is not an ounce of concern for the person that has AIDS, how about the fact that he signed the e-mail "peace & blessings"
so now I'm going through the struggle of whether or not to cut myself off from the support staff, having conversations like this fill up my inbox, just might not be worth it....
~C
CD of the moment: Prince - "Musicology"
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