THE JOBS AMERICANS WON'T DO?

Last year the President of Mexico, Vicente Fox, caught a lot of heat from the African-American community for making some very bold statements; he said "There is no doubt that Mexicans, filled with dignity, willingness and ability to work, are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States," click here . He later called Al Sharpton, as well as Jesse Jackson to apologize for unintentionally offending the African-American community. Where Fox went wrong was perhaps in not taking into account how our great nation came to be what it is; it was built on the backs of our ancestors. So in reality, there are no jobs black people haven’t had to do in this country, and for many years they were forced to work for nothing at all. Now, I do want to say that what Fox said took a lot of courage and is not entirely false. As many of us have noticed and commented on, all minorities have been able to benefit from the sacrifices made by the African-American community. Thanks to the civil rights movement, as well as the feminist movement, all legal minorities have some sort of voice; they have rights, at least in principle. I’d be upset too, if someone wasn’t careful with their choice of words, making my people look lazy, as if we didn’t have to put up with enough bullshit, we still are. This is where I somewhat agree with Fox, we don’t do these jobs not because we’re too good for them, or because we’re lazy. We don’t do these jobs because those jobs simply don’t pay enough for us to live off. As it is, 26% of African-American men and 36% of women hold poverty level paying jobs, click here. We fought with our lives just to get this far, and we got so much more to go, why in the world would we do jobs that pay below minimum wage? Thankfully, many of us do not have to go work at a farm, or kitchen, or in the back of a landscaping truck, or out in the sun in some construction site. There are some of us that may just have to do whatever it takes to make things happen.

I have a friend who happens to be an illegal alien; he simply overstayed his visa, and has been working under the table ever since. Now he doesn’t have the worse paying job, but very demanding, physically that is. He works for a pressure washing business, the owner of the business has many contracts with local car dealerships; the task is to pressure wash all the cars on the given lot, and then dry the cars up with a shamy so they won’t stain. This is not a detailing job; it’s simply to keep the cars looking shiny and dirt free, if the car is sold, it will get detailed then. On average, he washes some 700 cars a day. Being the crew leader benefits my friend quite a bit given his illegal status, he does most of the pressure washing, plus he gets the pay his help whatever he thinks they deserve. My friend is from South America, but the help he affords to get mostly are Mexican helpers; he pockets a reasonable amount, some $700.00 a week, while paying his helpers $350.00 per week. Sounds like good money doesn’t it? Let’s see what he doesn’t have: He has no holidays, no sick pay, no insurance, and no guarantees at all. The job is extremely demanding on the body; you’re constantly wet, yet you’re out in the sun, the water sprayed on the cars gets hot very quickly, so while you’re drying the cars it feels like you’re in a steam room, you’re shoes also get wet, to the point of getting that wrinkle effect from over saturation. It doesn’t get any better in the winter time where you would still be wet, only freezing instead. This is what many illegal immigrants have to do for a piece of the pie. In my friend’s case, his helpers only make $70.00 a day, which may be a lot compared to what an orange picker makes. Imagine having to work for that amount of money and knowing that if you get sick or hurt, you won’t be covered and you may even lose your job because of it. These workers almost represent what our ancestors had to go through 400 years ago, and we would probably be getting paid by the same standard had it not been for the civil rights movement. Some of us may still be under similar circumstances, only we have rights; we can assemble and create grassroots efforts legally to force change. Yet what amazes me the most is that some of us still have to resort to working for nearly nothing because that’s all we can do.

The job I currently hold right now is more of a weekend job, I get my 40 hours, but I rack them up while everybody else is resting. My full time job is from Thursday to Sunday. I do get to rest for three day, which is how I was able to earn my degree. I do realize that what I make at my job is not a bad salary, and I know there may be people out there in way worse circumstances than me, and for that I am extremely grateful. However, almost half of the money I do earn is automatically taken out of my paycheck to pay for child support. When it’s all said and done, Uncle Sam and my children have consumed 60% of my earnings making things extremely tight for me to manage my own expenses. I’ve already tried to come up the ranks with my employer, and the process has been one filled with bitter disappointments. I’ve been turned down some 5 times for supervisory positions. Not that I’m crazy about becoming a supervisor, but given my time with the company, my experience and my education, there’s no reason I couldn’t do the job nor should I be denied since I’ve already been given a leadership role as it is, only I don’t get the pay I deserve for it. It seems that I’ve hit the glass ceiling, and no matter what kind of spin I put on things, how much I’ve tried to convey my work ethic and mental capacity, all they see a dark man they can’t seem to connect with, intimidating perhaps. But my bills and my everyday needs are not their problem, so the rent barely gets paid, robbing Peter to pay Paul, that’s what I gotta go through to make it happen. I will see redemption someday, maybe at my current employer, but not likely. In the meantime, I’ll just have to hustle, do whatever it is to stay afloat, even it means working every day of week, even if it mean having to wash cars for $70.00 bucks a day. So what kind a man with a degree gets reduced to having to work out in the sun all day? A black man like me, and I’m not ashamed to of it, I can get my hands dirty, it’s all good, I can handle the looks I get from car buyers when they see me all wet and sweaty, if they only knew, it just reinforces a life lesson, nothing’s ever given, nothing comes easy, but I will die trying, you feel me? I’m only trying to eat what they’re snacking on.

Ever wonder how brothers wind up selling drugs? Is it by design or by need, or both? How do these drugs get to the ghetto? There isn’t any real money in the ghetto? If there was any real money, it wouldn’t be the ghetto. So you take the bait, you get caught with a rock, and then the system chews you up and spits you out like garbage. You get to work for nearly nothing, picking up trash from the highway or something like that, with some pig watching over you (sound familiar?). If you’re lucky enough to get out, your worth is less than zero, you might never be completely integrated back into society, so now you may have to take that $5.00 per hour job as your main source, and the cycle gets repeated like your Kenmore. Yeah, I’ll wash cars on the side, but I will not be branded like cattle, and I will not be kept down forever.

As for the 11 million immigrants in this country, the government would rather not give them rights at all; it would violate the 1st commandment of Capitalism, Thou shall not pay for labor fairly. I wish my brown brothers all the success in this struggle, continue to fight, you only have until November to force something. This is all about big business and the conservative movement. Fight for legal status, it’s where it needs to start. Mass deportation is out of the question, we can’t afford it from any angle, but let’s make sure we get something fair that will allow illegal immigrants become legal instead of paid slaves.

P.S. I’ve been busy making some paper, but I will be posting more often, holla……