I am not going to say that I work with the most brilliant of people, because I don’t. In fact, my coworker has to be one of the most insecure, uninformed people I’ve ever met in my life.

In the course of starting to work in a new division at work a few months ago, this guy has said tons of not so brilliant things. One in particular that he has pointed out, about 50 times, is that ALL Southern people are racist. It doesn’t matter what you say, ALL Southern people are racist. Now, it could possibly be a stereotype, but that’s not the point. The point is that most intelligent people realize that stereotypes are not all true. I agree that racism exists throughout the WORLD (not just the Southern US) but as a whole, I think that it is getting better. None-the-less, all of this is important for what I have to say next.

My California born-and-bred unintelligent coworkers, has made comments about me being from Georgia and the All Southerner’s are racist in front of other people at work, primarily African Americans, who by the way, were always on my side. He has said that he’s been to the South and how it’s not any better than it use to be and how ridiculous it is. What does he know right?

Well all this to say, at work this past week, I heard that most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. I have no idea why this flew all over me so bad other than the fact that because he has branded me as racist because I’m from Georgia. At work he talked about having to enroll at a child into school during February. He stated that during the week of enrollment the children were writing essays on influential black leaders and that he protested this and did not allow his child to go to school because he felt that Blacks should not have a Black History Month because there were no White History Months. He said that when he was a kid they didn’t have Black History Month. Even though my coworker is 10 years older than me, I don’t remember NOT having Black History Month. He calls me racist because of where I was born and this is coming out of HIS mouth? So I had to ask, what’s wrong with studying Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass and other black people throughout history?  Of course he has not legitimate response.  All I can conclude is maybe HE is the racist one and trying to reflect himself onto me.

Afterall, my favorite quote is written by a very influential black person in history, maybe it is one that my coworker should take to heart:

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. ” Booker T. Washington