I received an email which inspired me to blog again. It came from my favorite traveling rescource, Airfarewatchdog.com (That's how you know I love you. I didn't hoard the good stuff.) So this is what I received:

Hi there Jayne Marie,

Did you hear about American Airlines? Well, hot on the heels of last month's new $25 fee for checking a 2nd bag, comes news that they'll soon charge $15 for your first checked bag. And that's not all. They also plan ..ting back domestic flights, and laying off workers, all in an attempt to cover the jump in fuel costs. Will other airlines follow? Details in the blog.

So here's what I have to say about that. SELL! SELL! SELL! Sell you AA stocks if you have any, because AA is going to be out of business no later than 2011(I'm thinking as soon as 1st quarter 2010). Seriously, I no exchange expert, but I know a stupid decision when I hear one. I believe they will be out of business by 2011, if not sooner and chances are they're going to have to sell their company to another company - lol probably a foriegn one!

In fact, I have to wonder how good business must have been in order for them to feel secure in charging people more for something like this. Truly, I'd be curious to know before they announced this baggage charge, what their fees were like and how many seats did they actually fill percentage-wise.

See, if you run a monopoly you can charge whatever the heck you want... but with so many options... American Airlines simply isn't one anymore. It's not like they had the best fares to start with. So you have a company that tends to be pricey on fares, cutting back on flights and staff WHICH MEANS YOU'LL BE WAITING LONGER, you won't find as many good flights, and service will go down... Then, add to that you, now have to pay $15 - $40 additional dollars per person if you plan on taking any clothes on your vacation!

I was watching Glory (one of my favorite movies that I never watch) and toward the beginning I heard the funniest line ever delievered by Denzel Washington, in light of recent times that is. (if the video doesn't work, click on link below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGIjrmPLI24 (if the video doesn't work, click here)

Whether your Democart or Republican, for Hilary or Obama, be grateful for living in this historic time. This is text book changing, this potentially change the course of our nation's future, like so many things in the past we never got to be a part of.

15 -19... 11-04-08
(15th Ammendment gave Blacks the right to vote... 19th gave women the right to vote. Your "Right" wasn't always a right of yours. Blood, Sweat and Tears went into your right to vote. Color, Gender, Religion, Charisma, even Parties cannot qualify anymore than they can exclude one from being President. That being said... 11-04-08 gives you the right to vote for whomever you deem worthy and capable. Don't be a pawn. Do your OWN research. Use your vote wisely. Use your RIGHT to vote. Otherwise you choose to make yourself powerless again for another 4 years. Not voting is like standing by silent while someone gets hit by a bus, all because you COULD have said something, but they MIGHT not have done what you wanted. Take a frickin chance! Say something with your vote whether or not you think your vote can change anything. It won't if don't ever cast it.

One more thing. Did you ever have a teacher who, no matter if you raised your hand and waved frantically, he or she would never pick you? Or maybe you wanted to win something, and stuck you hand up the fastest and highest, but they picked someone closer, because of the convenience of proximity... You know, like when someone favors one side of the room for comments and you really want to get yours in, but no one seems to glance your way to call on you. That feeling of injustice, of being ignored, frustrated, mistreated, the reality of never being acknowledged was fleeting. You don't feel that way now because things are different in your life. But remember that feeling and then remember how you feel when we went to war, when the economy took a dip, when you had to pay stupid prices for health insurance and co-pays and medicine and still had to wait forever in a hospital. Think of all the things that piss you off, that you had no say in, but you did, when you voted or didn't vote. That feeling of not being called on, not being picked, is just an inkling of what it felt like to live in a country when everyone around you determined your life and your rights without your input, never acknowledging you, never giving you a chance. They ignored your side of the room on purpose as a Black person or a woman. They saw your hand up wanting attention to your cause, but their glances glossed right over you ignoring your humanity and intellegence as well, women. But finally they got the right to vote not just for some weird people who lived a long time ago, but people who are connected to us because they got it for us! They went and got  your rights and dignity for you when you weren't even alive to do so. lol you really had no rights. And it's more than just "the right to vote" it's all the rights that your right to vote preserves and protects; the decisions you get to keep because you get to vote for them. And now no one can ignore you, unless you ignore your own right to a voice? Why would you ever do that to yourself? How cool is that, that we have a say in our government? Think about it. Even if your party loses, the winning parties have to compromise to appease you to get things done, because someone In congress, on the bench, or in the presidency is fighting for the vote you cast, because they are accountable to you and your party.

Ok I'm off my Soap Box.

Thank you. this has been a public service announcement from a private citzen. The bus is coming are you going to move? = I shared my thoughts, All I can do is tell you.)

See at least I started off with something funny.

Before I went to bed the other night, I came into an understanding that I have a huge responsibility as a Young Black American. Specifically, what I was realized was this:

We (those of us born in the 70's & 80's) are the first generation of African American to be born Post Segregation, Post the Jim Crow, Post the Civil Rights Act. Prior to us, our parents drank from segregated fountains, most often had to fight, protest, or pray to vote. My parents went to segregated schools. My mother marched in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Memphis with Martin Luther King, before he was assassinated. My Father grew up around the corner from the Detroit Riot, he and his siblings were the first black students in his school.

(Kind of puts a new spin on Black History doesn't it? It's not that far removed. That's my black history because that happened during the lifetime of the people who fixed me breakfast. Seems so long ago and far away, but these are the earliest memories - very real and vivid memories of the people shaped me and are very much a real part of my life today and have been for almost 30 years.)

I say all of that (with pride... and humility) because there's something else I realized.

For many people, the question is: "When will Black people get over it."  I wonder with them about, "When will Blacks as a whole thrive and fully come into our own?" I get agitated at the remarks about how Africans come to America... and Jamaicans come to America... and Asians and Chaldeans and East Indians, and on and on and on... How they come to America with nothing, some not even knowing the language and they manage to acquire in 1 generation or less education, land, businesses, and wealth for their entire families.

With all due respect, for I do have respect and love to learn the stories of their success in the face of struggles in America, however, Blacks in America have a unique history and struggle which has to do with our experience, not our skin color or how long we've been in America. More specifically, we had/have to struggle against something they've never had to. (I'll explain in a sec.)

I make no excuses for any individual's specific situation, as there is no way I could it, yet I offer some valid, real, relevant observations that may point to explanations for the current OVERALL condition of Blacks as a whole.

We, the Blacks you see today and wonder about, are the very children of parents who were institutionally told they had restrictions and limitations; who were taught in their schools that their brains were smaller than those of Whites, more comparable to those of ages and therefore by design were created inferior to Whites. (I did not make that up. This was actually taught to my mom from text books.) We are the children of a generation who was poisoned and institutionally had societal inferiority complexes thrust upon and engrained into them. This was the blatant and subconscious programming received by the people who parented us! Those who were and some who still are suspicious of "the White man;" breeding a culture of hoarding and distrust, which ultimately leads to an attitude of self preservation and a stinginess, destroying a community and resulting in every man for himself.

We were only able to make the advancements we made because of our community and...

Thank God, we are also the children of fighters; children of people with vision; brilliant people who, like the God they served, created everything out of nothing! Our parents were resourceful, trailblazing, unquenchable, and undeterred. They were this because their parents were this. They learned that from their parents and all the parents before them. Today's Black Americans are the children of Survivors.

Unfortunately, no one taught us how to thrive. They taught us how to survive. You'll be hard pressed to find a black person over the age of 25 who didn't have a job in high school or earlier or who didn't learn to sell something. However, our parents (in general) were taught to be practical: to work for others in professions that were needed in the community. Sadly, not enough (there are lots but just not enough) Entrepreneurs were inspired to see past the Black community to making a mark on the entire world, to meeting the needs of the entire world.

Some were told they could thrive, and that's why the do, but as a community on a whole, we need to learn HOW to thrive and teach others. If you look at my parents' generation who are in their 60's, 50's and 40's, they're just now starting to dream or come into the things that they hoped against hope to be when they were kids. If they're just now realizing it, the younger 40-30-20 generation is learning it right along with them. In fact, in light of this, I don't even see us a late bloomers. In some ways, we've come a long way, in that we've begun to get over some of our biggest hurdles - the psychological ones.

I think there is a missing link somewhere... a failure to teach and be taught, because once upon a time in many "Black Bottoms," we thrived. We had our own black resort town in Idlewild, MI! We had "Black Wall Street" soooooo long ago in Oklahoma. We owned our own businesses and serviced our own communities. We saw our own success in front of our faces, which is why we did so well.

Now I'm not saying that everyone who's made it needs to move back to the hood, but what I am saying is that our children will and can only reach the dreams that they reach out for and they can only reach out for the dreams that they know to dream. They need not only to see hope in us, but to see instruction on how to thrive, how to make it.

Maybe that's what's missing from the Public School System - the long vacated community involvement.

For some looks at what the professionals and the studies say, visit these pages:..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

http://www.atkinson.yorku.ca/~jsteele/files/04082317412924405.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_threat

(Endnote: Additionally, for me, all of this makes any notion that Affirmative Action is unnecessary absurd and null, considering how that generation of Blacks and Whites are still hiring/applying for jobs and handing out/asking for contracts. Even if the actions have changed, often, the childhood mis-education was never challenged, meaning they potentially can still wield influence given the right/wrong situation or stimulus. i.e. - "Ok, Black people are smart, but, in general, you wouldn't trust them to manage anything, except, maybe Sabrina, because she's not like other black people." Terribly, the "You're not like other black people" phrase (/psudeo-praise) is not uncommon and instead of proving open-mindedness it proves the opposite. Just as Blacks may be crippled by stereotypes, I don't believe these are stereotypes we're merely imagined or imposed upon ourselves. If there are Black children who still suffer from the impact of stereotypes (obviously, not all Black children), then couldn't it be safe to assume there are still White adults who were actually taught those stereotypes that may still be impacted as well?)

One more Endnote: My mother was almost a product of this inferiority teaching. She was in school and couldn't read, until a White teacher intervened with a Black teacher and told my mother that she was smart and that could she could read. From there, my mother excelled. My grandparents had no idea that my mom's teachers were teaching her that she was dumb. My grandfather had been a high school teacher, both of them college educated. They wouldn't have tolerated that had they known... but that was the sneekiness of this institutional racism. By the way, this bad teaching happened AFTER my mother moved to the north and started attending public schools for the first time. This was the public's education.

My disclaimer: First of all, I like to talk. You've been warned. Secondly, This starts about Minorities in advertising, but I'll continue it later in another blog about growing up black in general. Thirdly, I'm going to try to share this online, with as much fervor as when I penned it on paper, but I know that as I trasfer this to my blog that I'm apt to take long, but, colorful, detours. If you'll be so kind as to permit me, I'm hoping that all I share will give you something to ponder as a Black American or an outsider. Note: I use the word "Black" most often as opposed to "African American," which I do use at times but more sparingly, because that's what I was called when I came into the earth. I've come to embrace it and I don't like the idea of "others" manipulating my identity and how I should feel about it because they don't feel comfortable. Still I prefer "others" to err on the side of caution and refer to me as African American, out of respect, until they know how I feel at least or when referring to other African Americans. lol. I knooooow I'm confusing and I ask a lot. lol. I promise! I'm really not a troublemaker!

NOW ON WITH THE BLOG...

I am extremely excited about an invitation I recently received to speak  to students at my friend's school for Career Day. Extremely excited. Yea!

This is very important to me as I've often wondered about who's going to be there to take over what I do when I move on. (Yes, because I make such huge and notable contributions to the world of advertising, lol. Still, even in my small domain, I make a big contribution - volume wise, at least.  ) I wonder this because, no one encourages young black children to do this, at least, not in my old neighborhood.

This is important because writing commercials does more than promote a product. It promotes self actualization and identity. Each advertisement, as with other literary or entertainment contribution, tells you, the media consumer, who someone (enough people to approve this ad) thinks you are and who she or he feels is right for you to want to be. An advertisement is subconscious propaganda. Sure, they're trying to sell us something, we know this, but we aren't often aware of what they are subconsciously selling us in HOW they are selling the product.

How do the Black people speak? How are they coupled? What kind of friend dynamic do they have? Do they have "natural" hair, curly/wavy hair or straight hair? How do they dress? How do other people in these commercials react to their presence - are they afraid of the "sassy black woman?" Are they schooled by the new age Mammy?

I'm not pulling this out of the crack in my back side. A lot of companies are becoming aware of what their images are saying to and about women - in the size, shape, age, and complexion of women that they use and the contexts in which they show them. Just in the introduction of darker complexioned women and natural hair to ads, shows that someone's paying attention.

But I digress. (Still, it's related.)

When I was a child, I wanted to write commericals. I saw them on TV and I knew I could do it... but then, I thought I couldn't. I didnt know of anyone who had done it or wanted to do it. I didn't know how to go about it and the prospect of working for an Ad agency like the ones I saw on TV or in movies didn't appeal to me. (except for on teh Dick Van Dyke show, that looked fun, corny, but fun.) It was something with which I had never come into contact in my working-class world.

This reminded me of an article I read about a year and a half ago on AdAge.com entitled: "Small Agencies and the Diversity-Hiring Issue." (Oct 11, 2006 by Marc Brownstein)

In this article, he writes:

"A friend of mine... who is an African American and himself and ad agency owner, recently asked me why I thought agnecies are so White... The answer, I believe, lies in awareness. Or lack thereof... We simply do not receive many job applications from [B]lacks and Hispanics. Why? I just think we don't have the awareness in the [B]lack and Hispanic communities that we should. It's been my experience that many inner-city kids love to watch TV comemrcials -- but they have no idea how the commercials are made. Or who makes them. ...Many suburban kids on the other hand, know someone who's in the advertising business, and they get internships when they're in high school with the family friend/acquaintance."

I can't say that I know for certian that all of his speculations are true, but there's definitely validity to it.

Ironically, while reading that article again, I caught some things, which to me futher emphasizes why we need more minorites in this industry.

1. I grit my teeth at the association of "the black community" with "the inner-city." They are not synonomous. I didn't grow up in the projects or "the Hood". I grew up in a nice-sized bungalo with a huge side yard in addition to our front and back yard in a decent neighborbood with older home owners on the infamous east side of Detroit. At a great expense to my parents, I went to private schools in "the hood" and 1 in the suburbs, although, I am proud to say that I graduated from a public elementary school and one of the top public high schools in the city of Detroit.  lol. I gots me a good edumacation.  Sorry couldn't resist. lol

I'm Black and still a part of the Black community, although I live in a predominately Black - and very sucessful - suburb with a Black mayor. I have not extracted myself, nor am I excluded from the Black community because I don't live in the "inner-city." As far as marketing goes, that's a harmful generalization to have, to believe and treat all blacks as though they are deprived and denied, inner-city kids or that all inner-city kids are depreived. My parents worked 2 jobs to send us to religious private schools when they could.

There are plenty of things, I'm certain, that Black children are un- or under- exposed to, but it's not restricted to those who live in the "ghetto," just like "Whites" aren't the only ones who in the suburbs. Further, Whites in the inner-city are in the same boat as far as opportunities go. Finally, not everywhere in the city is hopeless, including even in the inner-city.

*whew* got that off my chest. I staunchly do not like broad generalizations about any group of people!

2. Nowhere in his article did he capitalize the word Black, although he capitalized Hispanic and White. This shouldn't be a big deal, except that he did this 5 times(!!!!!) which means it's too many to be accidental, and, if it's not intentional, then it's subconscious. He didn't forget to capitialize the word White each time. I don't care why he did or didn't capitalize the word Black as it referred to race. I hardly think that he meant that to be condencending or offensive, but the mere fact that he did it, is something that sticks out to a minority and maybe not so much to one in the majority... But maybe that's too broad a generalization. lol.

I hate to make and seldom make much noise about race [I don't play the race card; I usually play the logic card a lot.] but I've come to believe that better racial representation is needed in media and marketing - represenatation that affirms positive and complete images of Blacks and the Black community and the same with other races. I've said before, we need more Blacks, Hispanics, and especially Native Americans and Asains in this industry, or we will always have our identity dictacted to us by outsiders who don't understand the nuiances of our culture. (I'll talk more about this when I blog about the trouble with the "Vague Minority Marketing approach.")

So in April, when I speak to Black, Hispanic, Hmong, Chaldean, Polish, and White girls and boys, I'm going to try to open their eyes - and their world - to the wonders of advertising.

Of course, considering how they're elementary kids, I don't think they care about all of my reasons. I just love the fact that my friend, the teacher, who is White, does understand the need of opening the eyes of her "inner-city" kids to the opportunities that await them when they apply themselves. Thank God she's not "color blind," but appreciates diversity without focusing on race. Believe it or not, that's like only 5% of why I think she's cool. :)

I have LOTS more to share and will post Part 2, tomorrow. Hope you're still with me.

So. I'm trying not to be upset with another small business signing its own death certificate. I love small businesses! I see so much potential in them, but I'm starting to get to the point where I don't want to be bothered with them.

Nobody ever promised success to Small Businesses, but SB owners forget that. So the very things they needed to go into business for themselves - daring courage, vision, creativity, the ability to take risks, etc. all go out of the window once they actually go into business.

"I want my commercial to sound like Joe so-n-so?"  Why? Why do you want his leftovers? Why do you want to be seen as his follower rather than an original trailblazer? That's bad business.

"I want to do branding," BUT you want to judge the success of your campaign on how many people come in and buy from your store within 1 month before you decide to buy for another month. That's not a branding objective.

And here's the best part: Though I am your demo and I used to sell in your store to your target demo, you don't want to trust me to communicate to your target audience the things they want and need to hear that will motivate the numbers of people you want to actually come in and buy from you.

Fearful! Stubborn! Foolish! What you've been doing (ignoring your target) doesn't work for you, but you don't want to listen to me. Fine! It's your check. But it's a shame you're wasting that money. It will be the best sounding casket ever produced.

I hate having to watch small businesses die.

>>Venting<<

This is the part that sucks about working for a radio station rather than an agency. Because everything you do is complimentary, they refuse to believe you actually know what you're talking about! Add to that, I HAVE to do excatly whatever stupid things they want, because this is someone else's commission check and they've already promised the client this colossial waste of cash.

>>Breathe<<

Ok I'm cool now. Sorry. I'm passionate about what I do.