I am seeing more and more Black workers in Dickinson, North Dakota.  Some of these Black workers are from other areas in the United States, and some of them are from foreign countries.

What I, and other people have noticed, is that these Black workers appear to do pretty well working at WalMart, CashWise, and the fast food restaurants in Dickinson.  I am not saying that is all they can do, or that is all they are good at, I am saying that they appear to be doing well at their jobs.

It appears that they are showing up on time, doing their job, not making mistakes, trying to do a good job, maintaining a good attitude, appreciating their job, and allowing the businesses that they work for to operate.

I admire how most of these Black workers are doing in Dickinson.  They take a job, try to make the best of it, do their work, appreciate their job, take their pay, and make a life for themselves and their families in Dickinson.

Now that I think about this, whether these Black workers are from someplace else in the United States, or a foreign country, they act like first generation immigrants, that are appreciative for the new and better opportunity that they have, and they try to make the best of this opportunity.

What I hope doesn’t happen, is that the 2nd generation of these Black families that have moved to Dickinson, the children that are raised here and go to school here, don’t act like many of the people that we have in the United States.

I was going to write that many of the local people in Dickinson would refuse to work at WalMart, CashWise, or fast food restaurants, because they feel that it is beneath them, or that this work is undesirable.  However, many people in the United States feel this way.

Here is what I have seen with many workers in the United States.  They don’t want to show up to work on time, or they do not want to show up to work at all.  You can give them clear, detailed instructions, and they will still fail to accomplish simple tasks.  Left on their own, there is no telling what some people will decide to do or figure to do on their own.

For instance, I worked at ship yard.  There was a fuel tanker ship that was docked, with some of its cargo tanks open, and being drained of fuel.  Even when the tanks were drained and cleaned, there was still a constant tremendous amount of ignitable fuel vapor.  On the warf, before the gang plank to the ship, “No Smoking, No Open Flame” signs were posted.  The crew foremen would go over with all of his workers, no lighters, no cell phones, no cameras, no battery operated anything, on this fuel tanker ship that was being worked on.

Sure enough, about two or three times a year, there would be a Great American, standing there on the deck of a fuel tanker lighting up a cigarette, not understanding that he was about to ignite the entire ship and the hundreds of people working on it.

In my lifetime of work, I have seen workers that are so stupid, there is almost no way to foresee what they will do, so it is better to not even have them if you can’t watch them the entire time.

I have seen workers that will mess up any assignment that you give them, both intentionally and unintentionally.  I have read military training manuals, that have names for all of the different ways that workers have for intentionally and unintentionally failing at work.  Some of these are, malingering, loitering, pilfering, spoiling the work, spoiling the material, destroying the work, and malicious compliance.

When I have seen the Black workers in Dickinson at WalMart, CashWise, and the fast food restaurants, I do not see them intentionally or unintentionally hindering, delaying, impeding, or destroying the work, like I often see other workers do.