I’ve worked in corporate America for quite a long time and have become somewhat “risk averse” to phrases like “low hanging,” “line of sight,” and “through the lens of…” However, I feel they may come in handy as I express myself in what I’m about to write…a diary I hope will be widely “socialized” and will encourage “level-setting” with the “team” directing the unbelievably “tone deaf” Joe Biden as he tries to develop the “core competency” of becoming President of the United States.
The United States is a country that, according to some “number crunching,” “drilling down” and “granular analysis,” appears to be “lagging behind” other more “innovative” countries in the response to the “clusterfuck” pandemic where we may lose the “opportunity” to “transform” our situation to save thousands of “FTE’s” or “headcount” types who live here “24/7.” I’m just sensing there there may be increased pressure on us in “4Q20.”
Of course, all of this my personal opinion from a “30,000 foot view” of said “opportunity.” And, as many an excited and always Non-Asian person has explained to me – “the Chinese symbol for CRISIS is the exact same symbol for OPPORTUNITY.” It’s an inspirational piece of information to be sure.
Please feel free to use any of the above corporate-speak phrases in your annual performance review (you lucky employed people) except for “clusterfuck” which may be seen by your “leadership” as too “forward thinking” on your part. Anyhow…
Back in June 2019 when Biden was only two months into giving it another go, I happened to walk past the television as this ever-approachable Amtrak rider decided to think he was helping to defend young black men by talking about poet laureates, hoodies, and gang bangers. At the time, I said to myself – “Old Navy – if you’re listening…Joe thinks this is a thing.” But — then I continued my cringing already-in-progress because his words seemed like such a desperate Junior-High “please like me” kind of thing to be cool and accepted. Super depressing.
That day last year, I rolled my eyes and turned to my husband and said “NOPE.” And then I went on to say how Biden still didn’t get it. I said how I felt he didn’t know what he didn’t know to become aware of how far he needed to travel to understand generational and institutional racism and violence (a journey my own white self continues), but yet somehow Biden continued to see it as a challenge to be overcome by using some kind of misguided “woke terminology” to connect with minorities. Again, it was super depressing, but I still kind of chuckled at “good ole, Joe.” Surely, we would see someone else emerge with more “running room” to bring us together so we could prevail in November 2020. And then, I got busy watching red, white and blue acrylic podiums during debates and eventually realized…well…here we are.
I now speak directly to you – Biden Campaign Team. Please sit Joe down and explain that, while he may have made some progress, and while I’m quite sure he is made of actual DNA that is infinitely more human compared to the monstrosity we find ourselves dealing with now, Joe is never going to seem like anything but an old white guy if he continues to make tone deaf remarks like he did this week when he was talking to Charlamagne tha God. As much as I hope Joe’s stupid remark goes away quickly, I think Charlamagne would be totally within the rights of his moniker to continue to “lord” it over Biden how much he blew it during their time together. Biden must avoid his tendency to try to connect in this way. And he must do it YESTERDAY.
As most people learn the hard way, these types of comments don’t make you hip (good grief) and accepted, they tend to make you an outsider or introduce you to an ass kicking. Oops, I mean a “performance improvement plan.”
To “bottom line it” – we can’t afford to keep going in this direction with Joe without “calling him out” every single time. We don’t have a lot of time to “course correct” here. Again, this did not make him approachable or au courant- it made him unbelievably vulnerable to being revealed “through the lens” of our eternally-forwardable social media as someone like a retired uncle who arrives at the family reunion raving about something he just heard about called FaceBook.
I see we are “about at time” on our meeting so I’ll end by saying – Biden campaign team (and Jill) please sit him down for a talk and STOP HIM from ever doing this again.
Thanks so much. Please “reach out” with any questions.