Are you the best choice to do what it is that you want to do?
Are you qualified to do what you want to do?
What value do you add to any given situation?
Is your health/weight/appearance an asset or a liability?
Many people blame their race, gender or sexual orientation for their failures - but most of the time, these factors are not even taken into consideration by those who make decisions in hiring.
Most of the time, these factors are an asset as most companies wish to appear to be diversified. (How far you advance after you've gotten in the door is then dependant on your ability to seamlessly blend in with the current establishment.)
Race (like any other trait) can be used to your advantage or to your disadvantage.
Obama used his race to entice liberal voters to choose him in the past election.
Obama used his race to appeal to those who felt disenfranchised.
Obama used his race to associate himself with anyone who wasn't an old white male.
The big scary Black guy probably gets picked on far less than the frail white kid.
Smart people use stereotypes to their advantage.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have all the answers.
I probably fail more often than I succeed.
I'm just a regular guy.
I'm not the smartest. I lost the spelling bee to the guy who is the current CEO of Sun Microsystems and to a girl who is some type of dean at the Claremont Cluster colleges.
I'm not the best athlete. I was bettered in swim meets by a girl who went on to hold world records and medal in the Olympics, I've had shots blocked by guys who went on to play in the NBA and I've even 'been served' in dance contests by a guy who went on to be a musical one hit wonder.
I'm not the richest. But I can afford to give away houses and to work for free when I feel like it.
I'm didn't win "Most Popular" back in high school. But I did get second for Most Humorous and Best Dressed while winning for Best Legs, Coolest and Most Soul (Basically, the coolest Black guy) and Mr. Irresistible.
I'm not the toughest guy on the block. My little cousins laugh at the stories I tell of the butt whoopins I took as a kid. Many of my best friends and I still laugh that we first met because we had gotten into a fight.
I'm just a regular guy who cannot boast of being the best at anything.
I'm not saying that we should be snobs, but there are just some things that we should not do.
Feeling inferior because people believed you inferior? What purpose does that serve?
Chasing the imaginary "American Dream" when we now know that this leaves everyone broke. Who's impressed by that?
Identifying oneself with ghetto standards when you've never been to the ghetto? Why, just take yourself and your family to the next level. If you're never going to be on the street, you have no need for street credibility.
Thinking that everyone of a different race is out to get you? C'mon, you're a big boy, you can handle the little flees who still use race to determine your worth.
If our outlook is always negative we will always find what we are looking for, we will always get negative results
Just do what you do.
The Bible is filled with stories of those who rose to positions of power from poverty or difficult situations.
These people never gave up they just kept doing their jobs.
David was in the field when the prophet came looking for a king, Joseph was in prison before being summoned to the house of the king, Jacob labored for years before he was given what he was promised.
The thing is, when opportunity comes around you have to have done the requisite work to be qualified to take advantage of it.
Otherwise you'll still be working for someone else, making less than you think you deserve, with people you don't even like, to buy things you don't even want just so you can prove that you are just as good as everyone else while the boss is laughing because you still use race as your crutch while keeping him as your overlord.
Thinking (and acting) like a prole?
Pa-lease... you can have it.
Once again, its hard to give an ovation and type at the same time.
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