yet I'm still good at them.
I live in an area where most Blacks are first-generation members of the working to middle classes.
Well paying jobs at the local refineries and the relatively low cost of living here have led many to believe that they have 'made it' or even worse that they are 'rich'.
The area scores lower than most other cities across the nation in heath, education, culture, happiness and a host of other measures of one's quality of life.
Yet many young adults feel as though their adult lives will be as comfortable as their childhoods.
These are children who: never walked more than two blocks, never were cut from an athletic team at school (B and C teams are formed so that the less talented kids can still participate.), had academic standards lowered at their schools so that they could graduate, received participation trophies, were told by broke-assed and unaccomplished Hotep brothas that Black people invented everything and it was all stolen by the white man, were lied to by their parents who told them that they were as pretty as Beyonce when they really look like Leslie Jones, think that every undesirable interaction is 'bullying', and whose only desire is to be rich and famous.
No one ever taught them the social responsibilities that go along with wealth. (Not that most of their parents or grandparents would have known anyway.)
But back to these clubs.
Clubs are more work than most people imagine.
Clubs, for those working in them, are more work than they are fun.
I'm trying to get out of the club business.
I think I'd like to develop a curated shopping center similar to The Lab in Southern California.
The thing is, I'd like to teach and train the next generation of club owners.
My highest paying client is someone who made a little on the street and then bought a small trucking company.
He has taken his profits from his legitimate company and he now owns a nightclub.
He has hired a bunch of twenty-somethings who, to me, are lazy and undisciplined,
Most have to be told to stay off of their phones for personal reasons, to show up on time, to clean up their own messes, to never sit down while working the floor, to not eat behind the bar, and many other niceties one is usually taught at home.
'Are you raising your voice to me?', I calmly asked a DJ who refused to play a request from a customer unless he were tipped.
I went to the register, pulled out his nightly fee to pay him and asked him to never apply to work at any club in which I'm in any way involved.
'I'm an artist.', he said as he angrily packed his computers.
I had another DJ hired before the song that was queued had finished playing.
The club had girls who didn't know how to sweep?
Girls who didn't want to mess up their nails by washing glassware.
Guys who spent more time talking to girls than doing their jobs.
Girls whose tips were higher than their sales,...
They've all been fired without warnings.
The club owner is so frustrated that he wants to only hire white employees who know how to work.
He (A relatively young Black guy from the hood.) is beginning to believe all the stereotypes perpetuated by some about the poor quality of the Black hiring pool.
'Nah, man. You can train a dog, you can train a monkey - you should have no trouble training Black employees.', I said as I reminded him that I had to train his whole management staff even though most had past experiences in failed Black-owned clubs.
But I'm not sure.
Maybe I'm too old and tired to deal with entitled children who fail to understand the value of actually having to do the work in order to earn their reward.
Maybe this whole generation is just beyond me.
