Without Knowledge: Destined to Repeat History

Photography by Benita Blocker, 2015

I completed a Black History Tour recently at the Latibah Collard Green Museum in Charlotte, NC.  Of course, I had never focused on African American Studies or Black History for most of my life, and I hated any type of history class.  My thoughts were "it's over; why do I care about it now?"

Well, fast forward 40 years to my present day world of 2015, and the little Black History that I did hear about is now repeating itself from 50 years ago as we saw militarized police in the small town of Ferguson, Missouri in 2014.  On top of that, slave labor only ended about 150 years ago for the USA. 

Many people think that we will never go back to slave labor, but think again.  What do you think the "prison system" is?  What do you think of correctional institutions?  Prisoners may not be "picking cotton" or "cutting cane" or toiling the land, but you must believe production and manufacturing is being exercised indoors where you can NOT SEE the "condition of the slaves."

Many people want to think that they are smarter and brighter than prisoners.  Unfortunately, politics, scandal, false witnesses, and outright "liars" can send innocent people to prison in a blink of an eye. Achieving justice in the American Justice system is a bonus that only prayers can deliver. 

But back to my Black History Tour,  I took a trip down the "underground railroad." I saw slave ship conditions.  I even learned about sharecropping for those freed slaves that did not want to move North and what G.A.P. stands for in the name of  the musical group "The G.A.P. Band."  Yet, the most valuable message from this Black History Tour is that if Blacks believe that their history started in America as slaves, then they are missing out on all the royalty from all the African history of "Kings and Queens" before the slave ships docked into America.

On a separate note about history repeating itself, consider the Carolinas Healthcare System nursing home that I worked as a hairdresser for several years.  According to the history that I know about it, the facility had independent contractors as hairdressers over twenty years ago, but eventually, created employee hairdresser positions in order to assist in keeping the facility hair salon running at a full-time capacity. Unfortunately, twenty years later with an almost completely new administration, no one knew the history nor the value of having employee hairdressers at an extremely modest pay.  So the facility under new administration eventually went back to independent contractors for hairdressers, and the facility hair salon began to remain closed as much as it was open.  If history continues to repeat, then in another 15 years and with another administration overhaul, then Carolinas Healthcare System may go back to employee hairdressers.  Only time will tell.

In the meantime, Black "folks" need to learn their African History and their Black American History.  The tour at the Latibah Collard Green Museum cost $7.00 USD at the time of publishing this article.  The tour is a good start to assist you on your quest for Black History.

Why I Should Run for President of the United States?

Dead Broke
First of all, I know the definition of what is to be "DEAD BROKE."  For instance, I gave this young lady bus fare in order for her to get to a Walmart to return some items in exchange for some food and Pampers for her baby.  Now, do I consider this young lady dead broke? No, this lady does NOT fall into a category of "dead broke"  because at least, she had something of value to return to Walmart in order to get other necessities.

So for Hillary Clinton to mention to Diane Sawyer in a recent television interview that she was "dead broke" upon leaving the White House, she is too far removed from the "blue collar" working class in America.  According to the University of Buffalo, Hillary Clinton can command $275,000.00 per speaking engagement. You can not be "dead broke" ever when you can make $275,000 USD in one day.

I understand that everything is relevant to the context in which she was speaking; however, the reality is this:  if I do not consider the young lady who did not have bus fare dead broke in the above example, then Hillary Clinton should not utter those words anywhere in context to her own financial situation any time soon nor she should have uttered it in the interview with Diane Sawyer referencing her past tense.

Non-traditional family
Typically, Americans prefer the idea of the traditional family.  Husband, wife, and children.  However, the reality is that most families are blended families.  Different moms, Different dads, divorce as well as same sex partnerships.  The traditional family really is now "non-traditional."

With the pressures of the political office, making time for any type of family is hard.  So for me, I have a self-sufficient family base, and  I am already a workaholic.  So fellow Americans - I can devote overtime to the Presidency.

Privatized Prisons
According to the Centre for Research on Globalization, there's over a million manufacturing type jobs being completed by prisoners for $.25 cents per hour.  Prisoners are making military supplies such as helmets, bullet-proof vest, etc. as well as non-military items such as paintbrushes and other things.  The prisoners do not get vacation time nor labor negotiations.

Apparently, when taxpayers decided they did not want to support bonds to build more prisons, then Wall Street and private companies decided to get in the business of "cheap labor."  And our US media is always on top of other countries and their unfair labor practices or "sweat shops;" yet, we apparently got our own dirt happening in the form of the court systems.

You want more manufacturing jobs put back in to the working class?  I would look into the privatized prison sponsors.  They should have saved enough money using prisoners as cheap labor to start to re-investing into the regular working class Americans.

Human Resources
I remember when a company's Human Resources department actually wanted every employee to have a career plan.  I remember when the first line managers were your friend and looked out for their employee's work/life balance.  I remember when companies were afraid of being audited and having salaries unfairly distributed such that minorities were getting paid less.  I remember when companies invested in minority programs like INROADS in order to get top minority students working to show their commitment to diversity and inclusion.

I remember when job creation was nothing more than creating a job position code and a job description. The money to pay salaries was never a worry.  Companies would buy employee houses when they transferred to another city because they knew that they could re-sell the house at a profit because of the steady appreciation of real estate.  People could actually work from home without feeling like they were under constant monitoring.

Our economy has changed now, and we may never get back to a time when companies were loyal to the employees and the employees were loyal to the companies.  I can only hope that work relations will get better.

Congress Lawsuit and Vacation
So according to President Obama's weekly address on Facebook, he said that the House Republicans signed a bill to sue him and then went on vacation for their August recess.  Pardon me, but if the House Republicans have enough time on their hands to design and approve a lawsuit against President Obama- then our government should never ever have another shutdown nor furlough situation.

We complain about our children being desensitized to human rights, but the behavior of the Congressmen is hardly a role model.  They are highly paid, big kids running around without any parents to say "enough is enough."

As far as universal healthcare, our country is so large that there was no way that implication was going to go smoothly.  Even when Hillary Clinton pushed this agenda as a First Lady, it was not well received by the insurance companies. People need to be patient.  If we can fix the job market, then the Affordable Care Act will be a little easier to swallow.

My name is Benita Blocker, and this is my message.