Plantation Blues and America's most Admired Companies

America's Most Admired Companies 2008
Top 20 Most Admired Companies
To create the top 20, Fortune and its survey partners at Hay Group asked the experts -- in this case, more than 3,700 people from dozens of industries -- to select the 10 companies they admire most. This year's winners all have strong records of innovation, leadership, and financial strength -- and their employees know it.

The whole class was excited to be going to the movies on class time. Of course it was an epic, lasting over 3 hours in time. 'Gone with the Wind' became an instant classic in 1939 and still carrys its weight as our junior high school of the sixties got to witness its mammoth proportions in cinematic production and a tall tale that had the backdrop of slavery in the land of freedom known as the United States of America. This microcosm of how the how people acted in the 1800s in the face of living in a culture identified by masters and servants living on grand plantations and preoccupied with the prospects of a civil war was astonishing.

No, it was not that sassy southern belle, played by Vivian Leigh or that debonair caller, played by Clark Gable. But, it was the nigger maid, played by little black children (like me) attention. But it was that Oscar winning Negress actor Hatti McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen, who played the silly, but perfect Prissy.

Of course we saw what it was to live as a negro in the big plantation house. Once again, both black actresses were perfect in their roles.

Since that great venture into seeing the wonderful workings of the plantation's big house, there came a more modernized movie that spoke directly to slavery and the complete politics of living on a plantation. 'Roots' directed David Greene and adapted from the best seller by the same name written by the late Alex Haley was seen by millions on national TV, and of course it, too, became a classic. Unlike the one dimensional production of Gone with the Wind that only showed perfectly fitting Negroes, it showed a plethora of historical life issues in how Negroes interrelated internally and externally in their enslaved conditions.

Similar Movies have also graced the big screen that depicted scenes related to slavery conditions, like: Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad, Solomon Northup's Odyssey
A Woman Called Moses, The Piano Lesson, Amistad and others.

But, modern Negroes could only boast about seeing plantation life on the screen and really never experience what it means to live and work on a plantation. NOT!

Then enters Fortune Magazine's list of America's Most Admired Companies that never mentioned their pockets of plantation mentality. The most telling category of analysis is one called people management.

Now, I won't pretend that I can recap every single company that is on that big list, but it's nothing like first hand experience. And I've actually experienced working for 2 of the companies that scored the highest possible score in people management, International Paper and Aramark.

First, let me step by by saying that both companies have departments or branches that met all of the highest standards for being admired. However, based on my personal experience, I would like to say that they are both guilty of allowing strong pockets of plantation politics.

But, one would ask,"isn't plantation politics good people management"? Well, I would have to give a conditional "Yes".

But, in summary, black people should consider stopping being enamored by the great movie classics and start to revolutionize their job places. If this doesn't happen, we are truly becoming another grand plantation experiment. It is those who depend on advertising dollars from the chosen "admired" and the "admired" who desperately seek some good publicity from some secret balloting process to get unfair good publicity that are a threat to a progressive world. Yet, the most dangerous shame are found when you see how the 'most admired" manage Negroes do negative things to one another in these pockets of plantation work places.

I invite you to share your plantation (workplace experience(s). No movie reviews please.

Check out an interesting article link below:

The Erosion of
Our Rights
Big Brother is
Alive and Well ... and He's
Signing Your Paycheck!
By DAVID MACARAY

Given the number of appropriate
targets out there,
it seems unfair,
somehow, to pick on someone as
innocuous as Howie Long, the
Fox commentator and
former NFL defensive
end. But because Howie
uttered two monumentally
stupid
statements—either of which, in a perfect
world, would cause him to be
showered with derision—it’s important that he
(in today’s jargon) be
held
accountable. . .