Battling Racism -- More than 30 Years Ago

While my newspaper colleagues examine racism inside and outside their profession, I can’t help but think I went through something very similar more than 30 years ago.

I first crossed paths with Jessica Hughes in April 1985 when I called seeking advice about where to host a bachelor party in Philadelphia.  She was a United Press International broadcast sales executive while I was a UPI newspaper sales executive in Dallas.

 

Back then, UPI was a leading competitor to The Associated Press and Reuters, serving hundreds of newspapers, radio and television stations around the world with breaking news reports from its bureaus across the United States and the globe.

 

Later that year, after transferring to Philadelphia, I met Jessica for the first time, face to face.  Prior to our meeting, I pictured an erudite, mainline Philadelphia lady.  

 

She was African American, and it was surprising because UPI did not have many, if any, African Americans in its sales ranks in the 1980s.

 

Jessica was quite graceful and about 12 years my senior. She was also a single mother and caring for her aging mother.

 

A year later, after becoming her boss, we made sales calls together in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, visiting a number of newspapers and television and radio stations. During our trips, she talked about some of her previous experiences, including setting up appointments with people she never met and listening to their racist jokes.

 

She mentioned their surprise – actually the shock across their face – when they met her face to face for the first time.  Never did it occur to them, because of how well-spoken she was, they were talking with an African American.

 

Jessica never said anything. She was far too professional. She went about representing UPI gracefully and professionally.

 

In March 1987, a few months shy of my 25^th birthday, with my new boss, taking him to meet a top-paying client, I told him I was resigning at the end of April to pursue my MBA at Northwestern University.  He inquired who should replace me.  

 

We discussed the likely candidates, and when he asked about Jessica, I said, based on previous conversations with her about my intention to leave, I wasn’t sure she wanted the job.

 

“That’s good,” he replied.  “Because UPI can’t afford to be represented by a black woman in Pennsylvania.”

 

I didn’t react to what he said but thought she already is. In time, she applied for my position, and I enthusiastically endorsed her application.

 

Weeks later, as my time at UPI was coming to an end, Jessica's status was unsettled. She wasn’t sure where she stood with UPI’s senior leaders. Eventually, they hired someone outside of UPI to replace me – another white man.

 

A year later, after moving to Chicago, a former UPI colleague said Jessica was looking for me.  I promptly called her.  She was pursuing a racial discrimination lawsuit against UPI and asked if I would give a deposition. Absolutely, I said.

 

I contacted her attorney and gave one over the phone, specifically mentioning what my former boss said about the reason Jessica couldn’t replace me. The smoking gun, as the cliché goes, was out of the bag.

 

A year later, I took three harassing phone calls from UPI’s attorneys.  Each time, they attempted to get me to recant. During the last call, I said if the case went to trial, my deposition would become my testimony.

 

They soon settled with her.

  

What I learned was how economic discrimination is. There was about a $10,000 salary gap between us. By not even considering her application, UPI was, in effect, keeping her down.

 

As for my actions, I do not consider myself any sort of hero. I did what anyone would do for a highly respected colleague.

 

African Americans have a bona fide complaint about discrimination. Certainly not every white man or woman is a racist, but there are plenty of racists out there, sometimes, I learned more than 30 years ago, in the most surprising places.

 

This article first appeared on News & Tech magazine’s website in July 2020. The magazine has since closed.

Beauty's tyranny

Clothing styles constantly change – especially for women – but our

collective thoughts about what constitutes a beautiful woman

remains, with a few nuances, steady:  She’s young, often blond,

slim, with breasts and buttocks men will notice.

If a woman’s physical appearance falls outside this precise

definition, she’s old, ugly, worthless, to be ostracized, perhaps

even used.

And while many a man, including me, has cracked a few jokes

about the time it takes a woman to get ready, there’s something

all men would do well to keep in mind:  Women’s looks are harshly

judged and often their inner voices are bellowing, telling them

they’re not thin enough, young enough, stylish enough, beautiful

enough, possibly even blond enough, to attract a man.

It’s in the advertising; the magazines and newspapers; on the web;

on television; it’s in the movies and it’s in the stores.  Women

are surrounded and pressured by this message.

Beauty requires monthly appointments at the hair stylist, time

for a facial, never enjoying a meal, never eating dessert, and

allotting enough minutes in the bathroom, so she can make her

hair just right and her skin youthful, so she turns a few heads,

if not from men, from her biggest critics – other women.

Compare what she endures to how the average man sees

himself:  He might be 20 – 30 pounds overweight, but Adonis

is in the mirror, even when he’s naked.

Women feel something that rarely touches any man:  The

tyranny of beauty.

For teenage girls, especially, as well as young women in

their 20s, these exacting standards are so powerful they can

make them depressed, feeling ugly, unwanted, unappreciated,

leaving, potentially, a life-lasting impact.

And yet, there’s someone rarely asked for their opinion

about what they want in a woman – a man.

Most men, some published reports say, aren’t likely going

for the woman living the Madison Avenue-developed, 

Hollywood-produced, fashion-idea of good looks.

Both Psychology Today and Everyday Fitness, a blog produced

by the Discovery Channel, report men prefer curvy, fuller

looking women than the ones presented by the fashion industry.

But ideas so rooted in our culture die hard.  Models remain thin

and many of us take our  beauty cues from those appearing in

magazine ads, across television screens, perhaps even on the web.

So it’s no wonder Jes Baker, a woman with a fuller figure, 

perhaps even – dare I say it – fat, took it upon herself to

complain about feeling ostracized by Abercrombie and Fitch

because of her size.  She deserves a medal for her work.

Apparently there’s even a statement, from seven years ago, 

attributed to the retail chain’s CEO, Mike Jeffries, saying he

doesn’t want larger people shopping his store.

But let’s face facts:  The thin model appearing in Abercrombie

and Fitch ads is no different than the one appearing in many other ads.

In fact, the last time I saw an ad featuring “real women” – that

is, those not thin as a rail – goes back maybe a decade ago

and it was for Dove soap. 

As I recall, they placed ads on television and billboards showing

real women in their underwear and, frankly, each one was beautiful.

The soap maker has continued this theme with another round

of television or online video ads, asking women to describe

themselves to an artist who never sees them but draws them

based on their descriptions.

The artist then asks people, who just met these same women,

to describe them. 

Two pictures of each woman are placed side by side and no one

should be surprised to learn that the second pictures, where the

women were described by someone else, were not only a more

accurate representation of their looks but also more beautiful.

In other words, the women failed to realize how attractive they

are.  But others – even those they’d just met – did.

And then an epiphany sets in:  Each woman learns the world

sees her as far better looking than she’s ever seen herself.

So the fashion industry and parts of the retail business, as well

as our own society, have done a fine job providing women

with an inferiority complex.

Men have suffered, too.  These exacting standards prevent 

them from searching for women with great personalities or ones 

with high intelligence – in other words, women who may not

meet beauty’s standards.

Instead, he feels compelled to look for the woman that meets

the definition but who may very well look at him with the

same cutting eyes used against her.

Men have their own beauty expectations to fill.  They’re to be

tall, dark and handsome; in other words, six feet tall, with broad

shoulders.

Beauty forces us into a mold.  Instead of putting our efforts toward

finding someone whose mind connects with ours, who will improve

our souls, through a loving, in-depth relationship, we’re focused

on the superficial – the butts, the boobs, the hair, the height and

the shoulders – which fails all of us no matter our gender.

The Illinois Earthquake

Unless you’ve cut yourself from all media – not always a bad idea – you likely heard that there was an earthquake in Illinois, a truly shocking event because they’re considered California-only tragedies.

Chicago television and radio stations started reporting the news about the earthquake – it happened at 4:37 am – within 30 minutes of the tremor. It measured about 5.2 on the Richter scale and was centered around 250 miles south of the Windy City.

The experts have been predicting an earthquake for years in Illinois, but they always figured it would involve the New Madrid Fault, one of the more dangerous fault lines in the country that stretches from Indianapolis to St. Louis to Memphis.

Today’s earthquake, reported the Chicago Tribune, happened “occurred in the Ozark dome region.

Not that any of this matters. The only time this information will mean anything to anyone will be when or if there’s an earthquake that’s sizably larger, say around an 8 on the Richter Scale, that brings down skyscrapers in cities like Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis or Memphis. Until that time, today’s tremor – enough to wake up some people but not cause an incredible amount of damage – will soon be forgotten.

What was interesting about all the television reports this morning, at 5 am, was how many people felt compelled to call in and talk to the anchors. One lady mentioned that she originally thought her husband was turning over in bed when she felt the earthquake. How much does this guy weigh?

For a number of women, married, single, divorced, separated, etc., I’m guessing this is the first time they felt the earth move in a long, long time.

This could be a major sales opportunity for the marital aide companies.

Pledging While Black -- The Value of Institutional Memory

Institutional memory is one of those things that's easy to lose. Replace a few executives, or key personnel, and, before you know it, the current crop of managers has no idea what their organization did or didn’t do in the past.

This means that their organization – whether it’s a major corporation, a small business, a church, a school, a college, or a sorority – is vulnerable to repeating a mistake it made once before.

I’m not here to debate the merits of history lessons – I’m all for them – but I am suggesting that if there is little or no institutional memory, then there is a higher likelihood that the organization will make a mistake that could have easily been avoided – had the managers only known the past.

More years ago than I care to count, I was student at DePauw University, a humble liberal arts school located in central Indiana, that has recently found itself the focus of The New York Times, CNN and a few other media outlets, especially in the Hoosier state.

I was a reporter for the school’s student newspaper, The DePauw, when Delta Zeta, also the focus of the media lately, decided to discriminate against an African American woman who attempted to pledge the sorority.

A few members of the sorority approached University officials, saying the student was not allowed to pledge because she was black.

Heavens to Betsy!!!! If only this girl hadn’t been PWBing everything would have been okay. I mean the nerve of some people – Pledging While Black. It’s almost as a bad as Driving While Black through a wealthy, discriminating white community!

A fellow reporter and I covered the sorority and the University’s actions against Delta Zeta. As I recall, the University asked Delta Zeta to accept the student. I can’t remember if she joined the group or not.

In the latest news, Delta Zeta’s headquarters, located in Ohio, forced out what they determined were all of the ugly girls in the DePauw chapter, saying, as a cover, that they weren’t doing all they could to make their chapter successful.

What it really came down to, according to all of the news reports, was that Delta Zeta headquarters, last Fall, decided it wanted to improve its looks at DePauw. So if you were carrying a few extra pounds or didn’t possess the kind of looks that turned a guy’s head, then you were history.

Once again, some of the girls from Delta Zeta, especially those that were forced out, approached the University, telling them they had no where to live and how they had been discriminated against because of their looks.

Had someone at Delta Zeta gone through the files, or had the organization even possessed some kind of institutional memory, there’s a good chance this wouldn’t have happened. Or, perhaps, it would have gone down differently.

That’s something that will be debated long into the future – among those who care.

What is known is that DePauw possesses a long memory. The University’s president, Bob Bottoms, has been around the campus a long time, even before I was a student there. So he knew DePauw had to respond, especially because it was the focus of some of the country’s top media outlets.

To his credit, Bottoms shut down the Delta Zeta chapter at DePauw. That’s the advantage of institutional memory. Bottoms had seen this before and he’d had enough.

Too bad no one at Delta Zeta headquarters possessed the same knowledge.

Ten or twenty years from now, Delta Zeta will likely re-open on DePauw’s campus. When they do, the sorority’s top officers will likely make sure they get their fair share of the best-looking girls they can find.