Race Card Anyone

[Sam]

I am a 72 year old Caucasian.

I know of racial discrimination against white people.

Some years ago when I was a foreman for a company here in the Cincinnati, OH area we needed to hire another person in our small department. I interviewed a few people but was told that I had to hire an African American.

Later, at another company, someone was going to hire a person in his department and called me to see if I was interested in the job, but then he told me that he was being pressured to hire an African American or better yet an African American female. The way he said it was, "I'll get a star if I hire an African American but two stars if I hire an African American female." This was while I was working at General Electric.

General Electric has had ups and downs. I started there in 1966 and retired in 1998. I remember how we had about 20,000 employes at one time and when I left we were down to 8,500. I remember a letter coming out at one time how the company would have to downsize and reduce employee numbers. The letter went on to say that "of course" the downsizing would have to take into consideration the proper minority mix.

Just a year or so ago someone still working at General Electric said that there is pressure to hire more GLBT's.

I have not lived with a lifetime of discrimination like some have. I can see why there is bitterness, anger, and racism in the attitude of some of those that we call minorities.

Actually, I am a minority in my city of about 20,000. African Americans outnumber Caucasians by 2 to 1.