Employee of the year.

One of the interesting things about having a blog named The Field Negro is that on occasion when you check your stat-counter you get to see some of the search words folks use to click on your blog.

It's amazing how many times folks Google words like "lazy nigger" to ultimately end up on this blog. (That might explain some of the trolls that we have from time to time.)

One post I did  called 10 Myths About Black People  gets a lot of folks linking in to it.

Number seven of those ten things deals with the myth that black folks are lazy.

This is a myth because anyone who lives in any urban area where there is a large concentration of black people understand that black folks (especially poor ones) are some of the hardest working people in America. They just don't have anything to show for their hard work because when you are making $8 or $9 dollars an hour you are basically just working to buy food and put a roof over your head. You have zero chance of getting ahead and living the American dream.

Sadly, you were born in this environment, and you will live and die in it as well.

Anyway, whenever I hear about lazy black people, I think of James Robertson of Detroit, Michigan.

"America needs more people like James Robertson. Every place needs more people like James Robertson. But that doesn't mean his story isn't disturbing.

The 56-year-old Detroiter was the subject of a profile in the Free Press over the weekend. He walks 21 miles every day, part of a 23-mile commute from his home in the city to his factory job in Rochester Hills, a suburb. He's been doing it five days every week, ever since his old Honda bit the dust. His route takes him through rough neighborhoods and he leaves work well in the middle of the night. This being Detroit, he also reckons with snow drifts and sub-freezing temperatures regularly during the winter.

But Robertson is impressively upbeat about it:

I sleep a lot on the weekend, yes I do," he says, sounding a little amazed at his schedule. He also catches zzz's on his bus rides. Whatever it takes to get to his job, Robertson does it.
"I can't imagine not working," he says.

There are some fringe benefits. Robertson's boss' wife feeds him delicious home-cooked Southern meals. Still: pretty grueling.

The reaction has been appropriately positive. Robertson was already something of a role model for his co-workers, and readers responded to the story generously, donating $70,000 and counting to help him get a new car. That's great for Robertson. But this isn't a feel-good story—it's a story about policy failures, structural economic obstacles, and about what it takes to keep working despite those challenges. Robertson is no doubt deserving, but it'll take larger changes to help other people who face similar struggles.

Transportation

Let's start with the obvious problem here: lack of mass-transit options. Robertson used to drive to his job, but his 1988 Accord gave out 10 years ago. In car-obsessed Motor City, that's bad news. Robertson's $10.55 per hour pay is more than a buck-fifty higher than the living wage in Wayne County, but it's still not enough for him to get a new car and insure and maintain it. The Freep's Bill Laitner reports:

Robertson's 23-mile commute from home takes four hours. It's so time-consuming because he must traverse the no-bus land of rolling Rochester Hills. It's one of scores of tri-county communities (nearly 40 in Oakland County alone) where voters opted not to pay the SMART transit millage. So it has no fixed-route bus service.
Once he gets to Troy and Detroit, Robertson is back in bus country. But even there, the bus schedules are thin in a region that is relentlessly auto-centric.

Detroit has never been big on mass transit—car companies helped hasten the demise of streetcars—but it's gotten worse over the last five years. Even as the city shrinks and people struggle, there are fewer options for transportation. But with unemployment rates inside the city at nearly 25 percent, workers have to leave the city limits for work. The Detroit area overall has a much rosier 7 percent unemployment rate. (A transportation official told the paper that Robertson might qualify for a special service for low-income workers.)" [Source]

It's nice to see that this story has a happy ending.

Shout out to honorable Field Negro, Ivan Leedy, for stepping up to help Mr. Robertson after hearing about his story. Dude is 19 years old and has already raised over $200,000.00 for the hard working man.

There still might be hope for America.




  

Even Klansmen have their angels.

Talk about a moral dilemma. Do you save a man's life, who, if the script was flipped, would not do the same for you? Or, do you let an angry mob give him the beating that he so clearly deserves?

That's the situation Keshia Thomas was faced with back in 1996 when the klan decided to march among a group of protesters in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

"When people are in a crowd they are more likely to do things they would never do as an individual. Someone had to step out of the pack and say, 'This isn't right....' “

To get an idea what Ms. Thomas had to go through, just look at the pictures in this post.

No doubt this was a profile in courage, and this young lady deserves a special shout out for letting her humanity shine through. Honestly, I can't say that I would have done the same thing.

"She put herself at physical risk to protect someone who, in my opinion, would not have done the same for her," he said. "Who does that in this world?"

Thomas, who had previously experienced violence, says that the man did not deserve to be attacked.

“Nobody deserves to be hurt, especially not for an idea."

She has never met the man she protected again, but months later a young man approached her in coffee shop and thanked her. When she asked what he was thanking her for, his reply was simple.

“That was my dad.” [Source]

At least the man's son had the decency to thank Ms. Thomas for literally saving his father's life. I wonder what happened to the father. He must have lost all of his white supremacist cred when he put himself in a situation which caused a black woman to have to save his life.

How do you explain that to the boyz back under the hood?

"I saw that n****r woman pulling you away from the crowd. What the hell happened to you?"

*Awkward*

If the klansman is dead, hopefully he made peace with his maker before he checked out. If he is still alive, he needs to realize that it's not too late.

*Pictures from the New York Daily News.

Just thinking out loud.

It's Thursday evening in A-merry-ca, and if you are in the town of Flint, Michigan, you better know where your male loved ones are. Especially if you are an African American. You better, because there is a serial killer on the loose, and, well, I don't want to scare you Negroes, but I think he is a big fan of Glenn Beck. I am just sayin. h/t to Tom for turning me on to this story.

"In fact, there’s concern throughout Genesee County as police search for a knife-wielding man who has attacked 13 men since May, killing five.

Arnold Minor was killed Monday morning on South Saginaw near Burton on Flint’s south side in front of Deuces Wild Kustom motorcycle shop. The blood was there today.

“We’re just trying to get the word out to our friends and family,” said Rashandia Jones, a clerk at Diamond Cleaners, next to the bike shop. “Watch where you’re at.”

All of the victims have been black men, and the attacker is described as a younger white man with a muscular build. The victims have tended to be vulnerable — some with slighter builds, some older and each walking by himself. "

You brothers in Flint better start getting your workout on. And, if you are an old head, you better dig out that straight razor you have hidden away in the attic.

So it's official, Elena Kagan was confirmed today, and now we have three women as members of the supremes (Hmmmm, somehow that seems fitting). I guess his O ness can count this as a minor political victory. Lords knows he needs all the wins he can get. Kagen clerked for Thurgood Marshall, so I am giving her the benefit of the doubt until she proves me wrong.

I see Kanya West is styling with a look he calls "Rosewood" these days. Good for him. I like to see young brothers getting their sartorial side on. And if he sends the right message by reminding youngsters of their history, all the better. We need more high profile people to send these types of messages. The fact that someone in the hip hop community is taking that step makes it even more gratifying.

Finally, folks in A-merry-ca are criticizing Michelle Obama for taking her vacation over in Spain. Apparently some folks think that the First Lady is going overboard and letting being the First Lady get to her head.

"Andrea Tantaros has penned a scorching editorial for the New York Daily News deeming First Lady Michelle Obama a "modern-day Marie Antoinette" for her vacation in Spain with her daughter.

"The First Lady is spending the next few days in a five-star hotel on the chic Costa del Sol in southern Spain with 40 of her 'closest friends,'" Tantaros writes, pointing to a CNN report that Michelle Obama and her group are expected to occupy 60 to 70 rooms. "Not exactly what one would call cutting back in troubled times." [Article]

What's the matter with you Michelle? Don't you know that Negroes are supposed to vacation in Virginia Beach?

And now for some housekeeping business: Lots of e-mails from folks (and some comments) about some of the people who have been front and center in the comments section after my recent posts. Most of you don't like the acrimony and the rancorous nature of the folks commenting. And you sincerely believe that they are trolls who are on a mission to destroy and not to uplift. All I can say is I hear you. I detest censoring and I doubt I will ever do it, but I am considering moderating the comments section and not for the reasons that I am sure that most of you think: Let's just say it's external and not internal forces which are causing me to reconsider. I will leave it at that.

I promise that if I do go the moderation route I still will not censor anyone for their beliefs or their urge to call me the most foul thing that they can think of. Trust me, it will still be open season on whatever; there just might be less of it, that's all.