In Honor of Herman Cain

I had a college student ask me one time, how did you deal with color and race when you were climbing the corporate ladder? My answer, I didn't. Let them deal with it. I didn't focus on that. I didn't have time. I went to the president of the Pillsbury company and said, I need to get involved in some other aspects of the corporation because I want to run one of the business units one day. So he said, we need a lot of leadership in Burger King. You have to go and spend two weeks at Wapakawlex. There really is a Wapakawlex in Miami. I graduated summa cum laude. I was working for the Department of the Navy. The same day that I started, another white gentleman named Robert started working there also. We had very similar jobs. So the first 12 months, I got outstanding performance four quarters in a row. The second year, outstanding performance four quarters in a row. And Robert got outstanding performance. But Robert was getting his GS salary increase at least two months sooner than me. So I went to Wayne, my supervisor, and said, Robert and I are both doing a great job. He said, yeah. So why is he getting little increases quicker than me? He said, he has a master's degree. I said, oh, it's not because he's white? Nope. He has a master's degree. So you know what I did? I didn't get mad. I went and got me a master's degree. Went back, sat down with Wayne. I said, well, I got a master's degree. I said, the next time you have an opening for a promotion, I said, keep me in mind. See you around. And not long after that, they had a special project called a rocket-assisted projector. They had to have someone who was going to be the GS-13 supervisory mathematician to do the special ballistics on this rocket-assisted projector. I got the promotion. And I had eight white people working for me. It was all about performance, not the color of your skin. So since I now had that master's degree, and I had proved myself, I got the job. When I decided to leave Dalvin, never forget the department head, and he called me in for an exit interview. And I'll never forget Russ. I think he's deceased now. He said, you know, you have taught me something. I said, what? He said, I had never worked with a black person before. You taught me don't judge somebody. The color of their skin.