God Don't Like Ugly

I've been irritated most of the day. It all started with the pissy daycare worker and morphed into my heart aching for myself and some of the people who work here (mainly, those of color). It's terrible what's been happening, recently. One girl was actually confronted in the breakroom and was told that "she doesn't belong here" and that she was only hired because she's black.

Now, for those of you who are unclear on the reasons why affirmative action exists, let me break it down for you:"take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin." It all goes back to the "Jim Crow Laws" and the "separate but equal" garbage that existed pre-civil rights movement. Unfortunately, racism is still alive and well, but people should not have to feel threatened or work in a hostile environment, just because they are darker than others. It's so ridiculous! I can't believe it's even happening, but it is. Even sadder is that it doesn't appear that anyone higher up is resolving the problem. Why is this? Don't they know that they could get sued (or worse) for not addressing these issues? Unbelievable!

Thankfully, it hasn't happened to me directly (or the fire would be brought down, seriously!) but it does effect me in that it is happening to co-workers and they, in-turn, are telling me and it pisses me off just as much as it pisses them off. We're having an all-staff meeting on Friday and we were just sent a survey to fill out. I was brutally honest with my answers. I truly hope that whomever is collating the responses really works to flesh out the problems they find in everyone's answers. They said it will only be a two-hour meeting, but I believe that to be total crap. If they really allow for an open forum, we may be there all day. God, I hope it helps. I really don't want to have to bring down the fire myself.

I'm glad that the week is almost over because I really need to decharge. It's been hectic all day - lots of work, emails, meetings and than this crap on my mind. Hubby said to document it: well, here it is in public view. You can't get more documented than this (oh, I suppose I could put dates and stuff, but I don't have a firm grasp of when all of this happened. Seems like two weeks ago).

I worked out today and it did make a difference, but I'm still steamed. I may have to get in another workout, just to calm down enough to rest well tonight. I'm trying to remember that it isn't like this everywhere and this is even more of a push for me to get out of here, quick and in a hurry.