The sins of others

As America watches the aftermath of the Zimmerman verdict play out two personal experiences with racism come to mind. I shared the first example with you in my previous post. Because of my experience in Chicago in 2010, I will never set foot in Illinois again. It is a state that by state statute singled me out for exclusion based on my race and gender. Illinois did not just cheat me, it cheated all of the young people working with me, people who work honestly and diligently every day to try to provide for their families.

The second experience that sticks in my mind ocurred

Sharing a moment with Anita Maxwell on a return visit to N.M.

back in the mid-1990’s. We hired a couple of college girls back then to do filing for us at our firm. Both were bright and cheerful and both were college students. These young ladies were honest, hard working, and devoutly Christian. They were and still are the kind of ladies you'd love for your son to marry. One day while both young ladies were busy filing papers one of our older clients, a wealthy widow with more than a million dollars on deposit with us dropped by my office. Our receptionist buzzed me on the intercom and then led the woman to my office. As I rose to greet her I could tell she appeared to be visibly upset. “What are those niggers doing in here?” she demanded to know, nodding towards the back of the building.

Stunned, I moved quickly to the doorway to my office, ushered her to a chair, and closed the door behind us. After several failed efforts to reason with this woman and quell her irrational hatred of these young ladies she decided to deliver an ultimatum to me. “You get those niggers out of here or I will transfer my account somewhere else," she threatened.

I stared back at her and shook my head in total disbelief. I’d had quite enough of this woman and quickly rose to my feet and suggested to her she let me know as soon as possible when she had chosen a new place for her business so we could expedite the transfer of her funds. I opened the door to my office and she stomped out.

A couple of days later her husband came in to see me. He was her second husband and was well into his eighties. He wanted to know what I had done to her. When I explained what she did he sighed and told me I had done the right thing. He also had a very large account with us and unlike his second wife, he kept his funds under our management until his death.

Though we lost out on the management fees generated by that woman's account we retained our self-respect. We also retained both file clerks until they graduated.

Both young ladies went on to become succesful and productive members of society and neither ever knew of the incident.

Most people in my position in modern America will not tolerate racism. Unlike the stereotypes often portrayed in the media, business people are merit-oriented people. When taking into account this rare racial challenge in our business history, I found it particularly disturbing that we would encounter a law in Illinois that would purport to right the wrongs of past discrimination through the instituionalizing of racism. Illinois punished us for the past sins of others and Illinois is not alone. We have encountered the same sort of racial barriers in many states around the nation. This is the truth about the rigged "system" civil rights activists are still complaining about.