I am writing about “The Wonder Years” which was a show revamped from the 1988, but is now a show with a black family living in the 1960’s. This show shows how a black family has to face many challenges during this era and how they lived and overcame anything that they were faced with and a little comedy as well.
The episode I am talking about it called “Workplace”, where the parents had to take your child to work day. Well, the father took the son to work, and his father is a musician, and the son was very excited but continue to interrupt the recording sessions with his dream of being a musician. So, the son had to go to work with his mother who is an account executive at the US treasury. His mother is the only black woman who is an account executive and the only one who has a master’s degree. Her son thought that his mother’s job was boring but not knowing all she did and how important she was to the company. But he soon learned that she was very important. During, the day he saw how his mother found a discrepancy in one of the accounts that needed to be fixed. She approached one of the other accountants and told them that they made and error and was suggesting to him how to fix the item, but he didn’t want to listen to her until another associate who was a man and black came in to assist and they listen to what she said and what to do to fix the problem to balance the books. Next, this same accountant that didn’t want to listen to her approached her not to thank her for the help but to ask her did she make the cupcakes because she has that “down home cooking skills” because she was black. Next, situation her boss came in her office to tell her about the mistake she already found, but she turned around and told him how to fix the mistake but instead of him giving her a thanks or good idea he took the information that she told him and made it his own idea. After that she and her son went to lunch and the secretaries was in the lunchroom who were white tried not to talk to her or be in the same room with her because of the color of her skin and the other accountants who are all men did not want to eat with her because she was a woman. But her son seen how important she was and that she did a lot for this firm, and nobody appreciated her, but he was proud of his mother and made him want to strive higher and get his master’s degree like his mother.
The moral of this story is no matter how educated you are people still won’t see you potential. This character had two things against her that she was black and a woman in the 1960’s. Although she had more education than anyone in that office and she should have been the boss they still seen her as a woman who they shouldn’t listen to and a black maid or a non-factor in the firm. But she was the backbone of the office and they needed her whether they realized it or not. She basically ran the office without them knowing and, but they never respected her or gave her the appreciation that she deserves.