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Who cares that Barack Obama is the first black president? I do

I was an officer for the Transportation Security Administration and while on duty on the checkpoint exit lane, an officer pointed to a group of African Americans waiting for someone to arrive and said to me, “If it was up to me I’d send them all back to Africa”. This was a person wearing our nation’s uniform while on duty. While it was shocking to hear, it was troubling the she made the remark so casually as if I would naturally agree. Over time I noticed a pattern of discrimination in the TSA workplace. TSA was exempted from collective bargaining and the protections afforded federal workers at former President’ Bush’s urging, so it was a real case study in the value of workplace protections.

 

I observed a pattern of discrimination as “officer of the month” recognition was awarded almost exclusively to white officers, and the open system of cronyism meant that few officers of color were promoted. Later another officer told me when pointing to a black officer “I’m tired of carrying that deadwood around” suggesting that he had to work doubly hard to make up for some who didn’t do their share. I wrote an open letter to management asking them to take action against this culture of discrimination in our workplace. After all, if we had racists in our midst then black passengers would also be singled out (a couple of years later I was reprimanded by a supervisor for his perception that I did not single out enough black passengers for random screening due to my history on this issue, he called me disloyal).

 

For the offense of writing the letter, I was given a two-year reprimand for, in the words of the Assistant Director at the time, fanning the flames. My attempts to explain to him that I was tamping down the flames by addressing a real problem, only led him to claim that I considered him a racist. Eventually I was terminated for my union activities.

 

So don’t tell me that electing our first African-American president doesn’t matter. That type of rhetoric comes from an ignorance of the experience of others so extreme that it can only be the taunt borne out of a racist agenda. It’s an attempt to diminish the meaning of this moment. It’s a denigration of the pride African Americans feel as Americans on this day. They know that if we all feel empowered and let our voices be heard, we will create an America that is truly free and represents the best of all our values.