“Incompetence” is a Racist Code Word

There is a trend that I see in restaurants, retail stores, and in general business services.  What begins as a White enterprise eventually yields to some sort of pressure to hire a black person.  Often, it is simply the “color blind,” White Human Resources team attempting to fill a position and gain some kind of social credit points.  Within months, the black employee brings in more black employees – most often, severely under-qualified for their respective positions.  Eventually, the staff is predominantly black, as White staffers simply move on to other positions at other companies.  The White employees, for their part, get tired of doing their own jobs, as well as, cleaning up the messes made by their less qualified, black counterparts.  That is when the place falls apart. 

Proactive owners and senior managers will step in and attempt to recruit talented and qualified people for the roles, but the damage is done.  Customers often leave with the talent pool that jetted to the other company.  Eventually, as the company begins failing, black employees go onto their next place, and positions are filled by White or Asian staff members, who re-strengthen the brand… until it all happens again.

I have personally witnessed this cyclical trend in the business world.  As a former executive of a defense contractor charged with managing the logistics needs of a project that spanned four continents, I needed qualified personnel to hire.  Specifically, in one position, I had a need for a subject matter expert.  My HR team was given the specifications and over the course of the following four weeks, I received only black applicants – an oddity, because the area within which I was seeking assistance is dominated by White and Hispanic women.  At that time, race was not a consideration of mine; I hired and promoted black employees in certain areas within which they did well.  But the selection of candidates was brutally bad – not because they were black, but because they were wholly unqualified.

Eventually, I brought the HR team into a conference room with about twenty of the resumes I received and went over each one, piecemeal, as to why they were not qualified.  After about a dozen or so, one of the HR reps said, “What you are asking for has no black applicants.”  My response was, “So what. I want competence.”  The HR team was mortified.  “Black candidates are just as competent as White applicants,” gaslit one of several cat ladies in the group.  I explained that my comment was being taken out of context and further reinforced the need for a subject matter expert.  Needless to say, I eventually got a Cuban-American female who did a very good job.  When I left the role, several black candidates were hired within that particular operations group and the company lost a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars.  The company is now defunct. 

My experience in the corporate world plays a factor in how I see the retail and restaurant sector.  Recently, my local Costco and Aldi went through the same cyclical trend that I see elsewhere.  Locations formerly comprised of almost all White and Hispanic employees in a largely White and Cuban-American area, became black, almost overnight.  Suddenly, stock issues emerged.  Lines became longer.  The floors were trashed.  The bathrooms were disgusting.  I stopped going and chose to drive to further locations.  I went back about three months ago and noticed the staff was back to being all White and Hispanic, the shelves were stocked, the lines were moving, and the floors were clean.  I have not had the opportunity to check the bathrooms, but I suspect they are clean, too.

Much of this goes back to the fact that there are genetic realities between Whites, Asians, and blacks that are indisputable.  American Renaissance (AmRen) reports on these differences often, and there is no need for me to re-do their great work.  The important part is recognizing that racial distinctions exist, whether we like them or not, and blacks are generally less intelligent than Whites, Hispanics, or Asians.  This translates to both a lack of core skills to succeed, plus an inability to appreciate strategic symmetry, longitudinal consequences, and down-stream ramifications.

As it pertains to strategic symmetry and longitudinal consequences, this is often a problem for less educated “others,” as well.  It is not constricted to blacks.  When I explain, as the owner of a company, that X must happen in order for Y to occur so that we can achieve Z, I am explaining the broader steps that need to occur in order to ensure we achieve a goal.  Within that framework, I will then outline the steps to achieve X or Y.  Envisioning that broader strategic concept is much like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, often unclear to those unfamiliar with the target picture until an image of the intended puzzle manifests itself.  Many people do not get “that,” and that is OK.  Not everyone is built to be an executive or a business owner.  But the difference I have found is an appreciation for order among the distinct races. 

A White, Asian, or Hispanic employee may not necessarily understand the importance of steps X-2 or X-3 to achieve X, but he knows he has to do it, because someone senior to him has a vision and he is paid to carry out those objectives.  Blacks tend to lack such an appreciation.  As such, cutting corners, or attempting to wholly jump over them, is a frequent trait I have seen in the black work ethic.  They fail to appreciate that other parts of the whole cannot move forward without the black employee’s tactical execution.  Those failures yield longitudinal consequences and eventually downstream ramifications.  Worse, if I call out a White or Asian employee for failing their tasks, they tend to take ownership, most often apologize, and frequently improve their work product to make up for a preceding failure.  That is “agency,” something most often lacking in black employees.   

Another facet of the black work ethic is that either they have very little drive or a tendency to work harder, not smarter – frequently in overt ways, so everyone sees them working harder.  For the second half of that, I can work with an individual to improve them.  At least they show initiative.  However, when I see a White employee do the little things to improve his overall work environment or stay late to accomplish given tasks, I ask myself, “Why don’t they have more White employees?”  I rarely see a black employee burn the midnight oil.  Productivity, however, is not a function of working late every night.  Rather, it is doing the little things during the day, so if and when you do work late, that time is not wasted on tasks that should already be done. 

Finally, there is a tragic consequence of politically correct, race based hiring and promotions that flies in the face of meritocratic achievement.  I cannot tell you the number of times I have had to deal with a highly incompetent black manager, clearly elevated so that corporate HR can check off a box.  The level of stupidity often displayed in mannerisms, language, and functionality can be mind-blowing.  The fact that many of these same black managers actually believe they deserve their promotions and have extraordinary confidence in themselves is shocking.  Then again, it is not surprising.

Consider this example:  the current Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, was the former commander of the failed mission to contain ISIS.  Ignoring the fact that General Joseph Votel, a competent White General, defeated ISIS within two years of taking over CENTCOM, Austin was so underwhelming as a military leader, his only accomplishment was being black.  Yet, here we are in 21st Century America, with a military led by a sub-85 IQ incompetent who is teaching his young black officers that their White enlistees are inherently evil, purging the ranks of competent White senior noncoms, and putting in place political tests for future officer promotions.  This is being facilitated by an overweight White, bureaucrat, General Mark Miley, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Like so often in government and business, White “men” are opening doors to incompetent personnel in order to placate social norms set largely by women and groups with an agenda.

Thus, I have come full circle.  The black employee is typically inferior in both mannerisms and intelligence.  He or she generally lacks agency.  Due to the fact that they are surrounded by empathetic and polite White co-workers, they believe in their own capable supremacism.  Rather than correct their black counterparts – and risk being called “racist” – White employees smile, compliment their black co-workers, and eventually move to another company where their talents are appreciated.  Meanwhile, ball-less White men in suits empower social justice warriors to make hiring decisions at their respective companies, eventually destroying the company itself.

Expand that concept to governance, bureaucracies, academia, and finance.  When individuals fear the label of “racist” more than the consequences of incompetence, you end up with a Third World Country.  That, my friends, is exactly where the United States is heading today.