I was in corporate America for a hot minute. I've been in interviews and I've been part of group interviews evaluating prospective employees. White people look beyond what's on your CV to try and get a sense if you are going to be a problem on the job.
They look for any small signs. When you apply for a job in some industries and companies, they are looking for coon or non aggressive or I'm not gonna make wave vibes. Small things. Do you speak 'proper English'. Is your name LeQuan, LaDonna, etc. Or is it Michael or Cynthia.
The interview for certain jobs is similar to the interview they give at the Embassy in Nigeria, Jamaica, Kenya. Basically, 'are you going to be a problem'?
I spent a while working in a financial services company after college and was very, very fortunate on one job to have a white boss, Jewish guy, who grew up in NYC next to the projects and hung tough with the brothers on the b-ball court. He was tall, Kareem was his favorite player. He didn't observe anything jewish, ate more pork than anyone. His boss who brought him in grew up in Newark and was the only Italian family in his projects. How do I know this about them? After some time they talked about their background. I was one of 4 blacks they promoted to managers. They told me more about real corporate racism than anyone else. They knew what white boys said when we aren't in the room. All of us who were promoted had 3 things in common. We were black and grew up in the hood and combined street smarts with book smarts.
He was a tough boss but it was tough love. In private in our meetings it was like on the corner. He had that NY attitude and he was like 'f*ck that motherfucker, let me know if he gives you trouble'. Or he'd say 'watch out for so and so, he's a racist pr*ck'. Both of them knew one thing about blacks. If you ride for us, we'll ride for you. They both knew the loyalty code in the hood and my guess hired on that basis. He wouldn't have to worry about a knife in his back if he put you on. You'd be mad loyal and we were. He was too. One white girl from the accounting department who didn't understand how the disburse an investment that I needed signed off, responded it was wrong and cc:d our bosses.
My boss asked me what was up, I said it was correct, 100 percent. He put her on speaker and lit into her, made her apologize and told her and I quote "Don't f*ck with my managers with bullsh*t'.
This is not a white man praise post. As I said, I saw the racism directly but it was subtle AF. Not enough to go to HR or file a lawsuit. They ain't stupid. They make it passive aggressive AF. The white boss, confirmed shit and went deeper. First hand stuff they said. And they talked behind his back because he promoted too many non whites (he promoted a Latino as well, also hood background).
I also learned never, ever give a white girl a review, especially if its bad unless there was another white woman there. Not a man, not a white man, but I got a white woman from HR to sit in there. Becky will lie on you so fast. Even if you have documented proof she was f*cking up, she'll still go to HR and say "RCNAL was 'aggressive' in my meeting and violated my personal space" stuff you can't prove she lying.
Corporate America is a minefield. If you are in management and you are in a room with other management, the white boys will look at you as one of two ways. 90% will see you as a threat. They know how hard it is to make it as far as you did and they are smart enough to know that affirmative action gets you through the door at the initial hire but it won't get you promoted most times, so if you are in that room, you were smarter and better than every single white person you competed against. The other 10 percent and in reality its much smaller than 10% are almost always too far up the corporate ladder for you to be a threat and see the same thing the other 90 percent saw but see you as someone they can put in charge of a problem area no one can fix because you are sharp and if you fail, then so what? Just another n*gga and if you succeed they can take the credit.
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