When I was a child, we were poor Southern "white trash" coming up to Chicago looking for work. I say white trash because that is the way many people looked at us. My Grandfather could not read or write. I have been hearing about profiling with respect to this incident in Florida. I know it is not exactly the same but we were profiled. There were some places in Chicago that stated they did not rent to hillbillies. I had a young fellow I helped to push along at work up until I went out on disability. He had taken over at the Program Manager for the special programs for which I was the Chief Engineer and Technologist. He is the best program manager I had worked with in my 25 years at the company. His instincts and skill were the best suited for advancement withing Lockheed Martin. He and I became good friends and I championed him at every turn. He is black. I add that because it is relevant to the above paragraph. He and I talked about it many times. He did have some chips on his shoulder that he dealt with well. He did receive some prejudice from within the company. This primarily came from the two levels of management above him. Those two levels were both Japanese heritage men. Believe it or not there is a lot of perceived prejudice coming from that perspective. I had Chinese heritage fellows who were associates and friends of mine who would not work for these men. I remember people who shied away from my Dad and from some of my relatives as we walked along. I think that many people have that prejudice that comes naturally toward poorer people because often there is greater crime among poorer people. this same prejudice was exhibited toward Italian and Eastern European immigrants when they firsr came to this country. There was also the same prejudice toward the "Black Irish". They were not of African decent. That is what they were called or "shanty Irish". I had a chip on my shoulder when I went to college. It was wrong of me but I felt that there was a prejudice against people from the working class by people who had been raised in more affluent environments. There was some and I just had to deal with it. I know that there were folks who were members of the congregation where we attended in California who were from a working class family and they too experienced this prejudice. It is there and you just have to deal with it.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 20:51:50 +0000
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