Why Shawn Has a Hard Time Finding Work

Recently a commenter told me that if I wanted a job I should apply for a retail job if I wanted to pay for things like art for new book covers. Now I’d love to take a retail job for the interim. But retailers will NOT HIRE ME.

Here’s the deal with Shawn and Retail jobs he’s applied for over the last two years:

I’ve applied at Target four times in 2013.

I’ve applied at Toys R Us three times in 2013.

I’ve applied at CVS four times in 2013.

I’ve applied at PathMark four times in 2013.

I've applied at Fairway three times in 2013. 

I’ve applied at various small businesses several times.

Before that I’ve applied at stores such as Macy’s, Stern’s Barnes & Noble, and the Gap. No one was interested in what I had to offer even with a college degree.

No one in retail hires college graduates. Especially college graduates with entrepreneurial skills like myself. This is why they have elaborate online applications so they can weed people out.

The goal of most retail businesses is to make money. And they want employees they’re guaranteed to make their money back on. Dumb, dysfunctional people spend money faster than intelligent people.

This is why the hood rat or the ghetto dude can get the job over the college graduate like myself. These consumer whores are money in the bank for a retail business.

Sure I’ve got sales experience. I’ve sold thousands of eBooks on the Kindle and Smashwords. I’ve sold paperback books online. I know how to develop a promotional campaign. I have solid customer service skills, skills better than Bonequisha or Jontavious.

But there’s no return on the dollar hiring Shawn.

Your average Hood Rat or ghetto dude will take the hundred and fifty dollars a week in that part-time job they get and spend 99 percent of that money in at that same store they work or other stores in that shopping district, especially if it’s a retail business selling trendy clothes like the Gap. I’ve actually heard of some Gap employees actually running a balance there that has to be paid off.

In places like Target, and Toys R Us employees will use their employee discount to buy everything in the store. Again, sometimes running up a balance at the end of the day on a credit card.

Not to mention items from other retailers in the area such as Air Jordan sneakers, fitted caps, sports jerseys, expensive skinny jeans, Playstation and Xbox games and Cell phones. And when it comes to the ladies, they spend their checks on Korean weaves, and elaborate nails.

Hiring a Hood Rat or a ghetto dude is money in the bank for a retailer, especially a nonblack one. It’s guaranteed they’ll get 99 percent of the money they invest in them BACK plus interest.

Hiring Shawn who owns a publishing business on the side means he’ll spend his money on things like his Lightning Source maintenance contract, hiring artists to design his book covers and save his money and pay for a Verizon Smart Router.  

Not to mention he’ll make an effort to participate in Group economics by supporting OTHER Black-owned businesses in his community and participate in Black-owned trade shows like The Harlem Book Fair, Circle of Sisters and the Black Expo.

Giving Shawn that retail job takes money OUT of a nonblack retail business. And with retail businesses such as Target having a razor thin profit margin, they don’t want to take a LOSS on Shawn.

In addition to the LOSS they’d take on the paychecks on the front end, retailers don’t want to lose more money on the Back end. Why? Because Shawn will last longer than the 90-180 days most of their employees will due to his strong work ethic. Shawn comes in on time and puts in a full day of work. Shawn keeps it professional on the job.

But that’s not the kind of employee they want in retail jobs. The surly hood rat you see at the register with a stank attitude or the sales clerks standing in a circle talking about the basketball game then scatter when a customer approaches are what management wants.

Why? Because they know these people will be GONE once the make enough money for an iPhone or a pair of Air Jordans. And once they’re GONE they can’t COMPETE with them for their jobs.

Now I don’t want these managers’ jobs, I just want to make the cash and go. Shawn understands that most retail and fast food jobs are ENGINEERED to turn over in 90-180 days. Why? Because retail business owners don’t want to pay for Unemployment insurance. Nor do they want employees to COLLECT unemployment Insurance.

Again, that’s another LOSS on their books. Shawn understands the psychological tactics retail managers use to weed out people they don’t like such as cutting hours, changing work duties, asking employees to do tasks like cleaning bathrooms, and the enforcement of harsh disciplinary action and contradictory rules and regulations which lead into Paradox Traps where NOTHING an employee does is RIGHT. The retail workplace is a mind-fuck designed by HR Manginas to frustrate people into quitting.

And when people QUIT a retail job, they don’t qualify for Unemployment. And when they stay on a job past 180 days, the employer has to start paying Unemployment insurance on that employee.

No one in business wants to LOSE money. So they won’t hire me. I’m guaranteed to COST them MONEY.

The same commenter says I could go work in a Restaurant.

Here’s the deal on restaurants here in the Bronx: They’re all Hispanic owned. And with me being a Black man, that means NO CHANCE.

Most restaurants here in The Bronx here only hire Hispanics. And you need to know how to speak Spanish in order to wait tables or work in the kitchens there.

Most Hispanic-owned restaurants here just like the supermarkets here in The Bronx usually pay their employees cash off-the-books. That’s how they maintain their razor thin profit margin.

Sure I can wait tables and stock shelves with the best of the Mexicans and Dominicans. But no one in management wants a big college educated Black man there disrupting that flow of their business with his W-2’s taxes, Unemployment insurance, ObamaCare, and requests for a direct deposit into a bank account.

Now there are McDonald’s, Burger Kings, Wendy’s, and other fast food places like Dunkin Donuts. Hell, we have an Indian-owned Popeye’s and KFC here in The Bronx.

But these foreign-owned franchises don’t hire Black men like myself to work their counters out of fear that the Big Black boogeyman will scare off customers.

 Moreover, they don’t hire college graduates. These business owners fear people like me discussing things like work conditions, minimum wage and health and safety regulations with their employees. And they fear me using that dreaded U-word UNION in their businesses.

Now I’m just a brother who wants to make a buck. The kind of guy who will mind his business take his pay and leave. But to a retail business I’m considered a threat.

And because I’m considered a threat I can’t get hired at any of these minimum wage jobs. It’s the main reason why I’m forced to go into business for myself. If I didn’t work at selling books these last five years I wouldn’t be eating.

In this AmeriKKKan job market over the last 20 years I’ve learned it’s not about degrees. It’s not about experience. It’s not about what you know or whom you know. If you’re a Black man, especially a Black man with a college education and a strong work ethic you aren’t valued appreciated or even wanted.

People like me aren’t bad for business because of our skin color. We’re bad for business because our values don’t allow us to spend money in a way that warrants a return on the dollar to nonblack people. A retailer can make twice as much money off a Coon, a Baby Mama or a Hood Rat than he ever would on an intelligent Black man like Shawn.