All Black Everything [Our Professional Selves]
In school, I’ve developed the mannerism of using “sir” and “miss” (or misses) when greeting colleagues and, to some extent, students. The greeting puts a small distance between me and the person I address. People might take this as a sign of deference or even subservience, yet my stature and demeanor reveals nothing of the sort. Anytime people mistake my courtesy for tenderness or servitude, they quickly find my discourteous side, the one that won’t go the extra mile to meet both of our needs, the one that won’t stay extra hours, the one that will play directly into the Angry Black Man stereotype.
Because, as a Black man, there’s little worse for one’s professionalism than being told you’re a “Yes man.”
The same goes for the term “groupie,” or for those who think they can keep their insulted coded, “sycophant.” In
