I'm not sure if it still works the same way now as it did

Posted on: December 23, 2021 at 12:18:47 CT

years ago, but Floyd, an insurance broker, was telling my Dad about a pretty bad experience he had been involved in.

One of his clients complained to my Dad's friend about a terribly rude customer service rep at The Travelers. The broker called up the company and spoke with someone about how bad his client's experience had been giving the name and details of what had happened.

He was told that yes, they had a lot of complaints about that service rep and asked if his customer would provide a written detail of exactly what happened, what was said and so on. They said they needed to document her file. The customer did so and sent it all in to the company.

A few years later, Floyd asked his rep at the company what had ever happened to that lady. The rep said that they compiled a huge file of complaints against the lady before finally firing her. They needed to have their ducks in a row because she was black and they didn't want trouble with the EEOC.

But, she filed a complaint with the EEOC and despite the huge file of complaints against her they were forced to hire her back with back wages for the time that she had missed.

Floyd said that to him the moral of the story was that he would never hire a black person in his office because it meant that no matter how bad the person might perform they could never be fired.

I think those types of stupid moves by the government have a bad boomerang effect and cause more discrimination and resentment than if the government was out of it completely.

I read a book about the Brooks Robinson story some years ago. Negroes were very much discriminated against back then and Branch Rickey knew that if he was going to break the color barrier he would need to bring in a player with exceptional talent. He did, but Brooks Robinson was still treated horribly by many. But people see and understand what is going on and he won over many teammates and others who saw first hand the persecution that he faced. It was a long struggle but he opened the way for other black players and over time their merits clearly won the day and they broke down many of the racial barriers and prejudice that existed.

It seems that sometimes using the heavy hand of the government to force the issue is counterproductive, making the process of ending discrimination and prejudice much harder, or perhaps even making it worse.