#progressive ideas

Forcing companies to pay overtime to salaried workers would likely result in more jobs as they would choose to higher additional staff instead.

The lack of jobs for college graduates is a direct result of companies abusing salaried workers. Jobs that used to be done by 2-3 people are required to be done by one person with no additional compensation. It results in depressed, exhausted employees with no work-life balance.

Companies may claim reduction in workforce is due to technological advancements. I don’t buy it. After 20 years working in corporate America, what I can tell you is most companies are running on outdated systems that are at best the equivalent of using Windows 95. New systems are expensive by themselves and even more costly to implement. Most businesses will do everything they can to keep an older system going to avoid the cost.

In the absence of an integrated, efficient IT system, more manpower is required. Companies avoid this cost by piling more work onto employees who are exempt from overtime pay.

Letter to the U.S. Government Or, “Suggestions for Ending Mass Shootings and other Domestic Horrors)

December 3, 2015

Dear U.S. government, corporate conglomerates, and devil’s advocates:

As you well know, this nation finds itself tortured by a disturbing epidemic of domestic violence. This takes the form of gang warfare and other community predatory behavior, anti-Black police brutality, suicide, sexual assault, and mass shootings.  This tumultuous scenario has yourselves and we…

So the buzz in the building as of late is the Steven Universe fandom’s behavior, and subsequently the behavior of many groups/fandoms/communities found here primarily.

If you aren’t familiar with any of the drama let me give you a quick summary: Tumblr artist @zamii070 has been under fire for drawings (specifically about Steven universe) that other people choose to label as offensive, in a variety of ways. The outcry, harassment, and behavior of the people within this fandom pushed her to attempted suicide. She is currently alive and recovering.

So this isn’t going to be about the specifics of this incident and the following events directly related. This is about the kind of behavior that is most relevant right now because of said incident. Buckle yo’ pants, this is gonna be a ride.

Let’s first start off and say that in the world of art, everything is subjective. Nothing is truly black and white (even those black and white drawings we make. They have some greys in there occasionally.) Sometimes we look at something and it may strike a chord with us. We may feel that what we’re seeing isn’t right in some manner for a plethora of reasons. Normally when we are uncomfortable, unsure, or set off by something, we ask, inquire, or try to understand what we’re seeing before we make our assumptions and decide our course of action.  Again, this is NORMALLY how one would handle something they don’t understand, at least with an open, and assumed progressive mindset. 

That, however, is not the case any more in this day and age. At the half way point of the decade, it’s almost like having a badge of honor to have a strong opinion and stand up for it regardless of what comes you way and regardless of how it comes.  People can try their hardest to be nice and respectful about something but if it doesn’t conform to someone’s ideals of progressive behavior, it’s wrong. “But what if I try to expla-“ “NO. IT’S WRONG. YOU DON’T GET TO DEFINE WHAT’S OKAY AND NOT OKAY!” And, let’s be real here, we’ve all seen that happen or maybe you’re the person who says that to someone else. Who gives these people the authority to say that they’re right and you’re wrong? There are lots of people who have found ways using Race, Religion, and Personal Life Choices to mark their authority on the matter, and sometimes that’s totally legit. As a person of African descent, I can assure you I’ll tell you when I find something racist against my ethnicity. But that power comes with so much responsibility and sensibility, yet everyone has decided to put logic and reason in a small chest in the back of the attic, waiting and hoping for it to slowly suffocate and die so they may never have to justify their actions.

In 2015 our generation’s prime concerns are safety. Protecting and standing up for the rights of anything and everything under the son that might feel left out or under persecution. When I was younger, I was taught that if you saw something you didn’t understand or if there was something you disagreed with, you didn’t just assume it was bad and try and stomp it out. You tried to understand what that thing was. Maybe after understanding it you still don’t like it, but hey, at least you know more than you did before hand. Being an African American and Jewish, I come from two heritages that were viewed as bad people throughout history purely for being who they were. If people continued to ignore my cultural backgrounds and choose to not learn about them then I might not even exist today. We wouldn’t have a black president, there wouldn’t be mixed race people. There wouldn’t be a multi-cultural/multi-ethnical world that we live in now! We’ve PROGRESSED this far because we decided to do away with old ways of despising things that are different from our own point of view and instead chose to understand them.

As I said before, we don’t have to like what we find and what we learn. But more often than not, when we take a moment to understand someone else’s actions/choices, we form new opinions and view points. We learn and grow through these interactions and become closer. Meanwhile, with trying to protect and defend ourselves while labeling others who mean no ill will or harm are being persecuted for things that they’re probably advocates against themselves! I’m sure Zamii supports transgenders and does not believe in body shaming. Maybe that straight guy in your class was at a rally to support gay marriage. You never know what someone’s true intentions and understandings of the world are unless you take the time to talk and understand that person.

We are a collective of like-minded individuals. A human race. We’re all running to the same finish line. If there are people out there who wanna try and sabotage it for the rest of us, let’s spend more effort in solving the real issues vs attacking back with blind eyes and deaf ears.

tl;dr - If there’s something out there that you want to question, go right ahead! Questioning things is what got us to where we are now. If it concerns you, figure out what’s going on. You might be surprised to know that you’ll learn something instead of trying to “Educate others.”