Why must black people continuously seek approval from white people? I've heard over and over again black men and women stating this phrase, "You're making US look bad." As I shake my head at the ignorance of my fellow black people, I can only help but wonder how many of us feel this way.

Honestly, I'm guilty of it, which is the reason for this piece. This morning I found myself thinking this same thing about a fellow, black co-worker of mine. This person comes to work late everyday they're scheduled, they check their social site notifications before touching work and if they aren't asked to complete a task, they will watch movies all day. Fortunately, our supervisor is driven by guilt, so she would feel guilty if she fired this individual and they couldn't afford to purchase food; but enough is enough, don't you think?

I understand that the description you just read may be an extreme case, but doesn't it make you want to rip your hair out of your scalp? If you agree with this statement, you're black and you work in a majority WHITE environment, the only solution I can muster is that you're thinking that person is making US look bad; but why do we care what they think? I think that this mentality stretches back to slavery days, when our ancestors were given specific tasks to handle and if they failed, then the other slaves feared for how that would impact their well-being.

Thinking of what WHITE people think of us is an indirect way for us to hold our selves back from progressing thru life. There are a handful of black people who have been very successful at reaching the top, but the majority of us are in positions that call for us to be under white supervision, therefore we are constantly worried about how well they think our work is or if we have a dysfunctional, black coworker, we're hoping that they don't think we're exactly the same. I propose that we please ourselves and by that I mean, we do what we think is quality work, or at least what we would expect of others if we were the boss. If we can do this, then the phrase "You're making US look bad", might eventually go away.