Uncle Remus, a former slave who did odd jobs around the plantation after emancipation, was the fictional narrator of a collection of African American folktales, animal stories, and songs. As the star of Disney’s, never to be sold again, Songs of the South, Uncle Remus imparts wisdom to young white children everywhere, through the many life lessons and plantation lore learned during his enslavement unpaid internship. The Sharecropper’s Almanac hopes to pass along Remus’ insight to you, our readers.
With today’s Labor Department report of the unemployment rate now being at 9.5% and with 467,000 job lost in the month of June, we implore you to not make the layoff decision any easier for your employer. Please think twice about getting drunk on Tuesday nights, telling your supervisor what you ‘ain’t ’bout to do’, and feeling disrespected because your boss asked you to use spellcheck on that email that you sent. Please don’t complain to the HR department about how you feel slighted that they didn’t do anything to honor Juneteenth.
Likening Uncle Remus, during this recession you may just have to ‘grin and bear it’. It’s nothing personal. It is simply a business decision…to keep your Black ass in a job! We know this isn’t an issue for our Detroit readers and we appreciate their civility throughout this economic downturn.
NOTE: We still do not condone workplace acceptance of hair touching, jive talk, or the continued questioning as to how to do the Ricky Bobby.
What they don't see in my file is all this hate I got behind this smile!
Be on the look out for our new column detailing the experiences of being the only Black person in the workplace entitled, “Lessons from a Lonely Brother in Corporate America by Tyrell Cunningham, CPA”
