Obligatory Rant on Racism Today

For those of you who do not know, Mississippi higher education is under court order (The Ayers Case) to equalize the distribution of funds over eight public universities (three of which are historically black universities). I work for a minority owned architecture firm that is trying to snag a good portion of this work. And yes, Shirley, we are the only "minority-owned" firm in the state of Mississippi. When I say "minority" I do not mean female, because females outnumber males like 600 to one. Maybe not that many, it just seems that way. I can't turn around in the shower without some woman telling me that I don't need to eat BUTTER. WTF?

Long story short, we have somehow grabbed a bit of work on a building that was constructed in 1830 and is on the Historic Register of the State of Mississippi as well as the National Historic Register. Can you possibly imagine the hoops that my company must jump through just to get to a bid process on these jobs? Not only do we have to submit all of our proposals to the college and to the government agency in charge of universities here, but we also have to submit all of our work to both Federal and State Archives and History organizations.

My problem with this process began when I received a letter from our State Department of Archives and History recommending that I employ the services of another architecture firm because they have extensive experience in the restoration of historical structures. Not one time did they venture to ask if our firm had that experience, they just assumed that we did not.

That said, I banged out a letter today letting them know that we did not require the services of one of our COMPETITORS to complete the project. I think that I went on the defensive a little too much, but dammit, you think that Wal-Mart calls up K-Mart to see if what they are doing is cool? McDonald's calls Wendy's? Superman calls Batman?

Not to go off on a tangent, but we WANT the work. Not too many other firms want to tackle work that occurs out in no man's land. (There is only one restaurant within twenty-five miles of the job, and it's a Sonic.) Come on folks, let the little guy have a shot at doing the job. He is going to cut you a deal for the first go around, he's probably a pretty good dude, and if he messes the thing up too bad, don't use him again. We just want the chance and who better to do the work on an historically black campus than a black architecture firm?

Oh, and by the way, personally I think that we can do better work than 90% of the other firms in Mississippi and I have experience with the other firms.

Enough about that. What about Al and them damn CHICKENS?

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