Yes

by Jonathan Clayton

Created on: October 25, 2008   Last Updated: June 27, 2009

Reverse discrimination is a problem that for the most part, fly's under the radar, here in America!

Reverse discrimination is a topic that most often dosen't get the attention it deserves. If it's even spoken about at all! The reason I can speak of this problem with in-depth knowledge, is because of a personal experience which happened in my own life, a few years ago. Myself and another young man decided to start a new business in the Communication's industry. We pooled our resources, all of our asset's, and even went as far as taking out second mortgage's on our homes, to finance this endeavor.

We started out with just the two of us. But by the end of the first year, we had six Field Technicians, and two individual's that generated sale's for our small company. We were able to secure two major contracts, with two separate Communication firm's. This allowed us to expand dramatically. Hire several more employee's, and acquire larger, more lucrative, long term contracts.

At this point, we felt we were doing pretty well. We were able to double the size of our company and the number of employee's, in less than a year! Our company name was becoming fairly well known in the Midwest, where we were operating at the time, and our reputation for quality work as well as fair pricing was beginning to pay off!

I was in charge of personnel because of my technical background and having managed multiple people, locations, and situation's in my own thirty year career, in the Communication's Industry. At this time we had a total of ten hourly and two salaried employee's. This did not include my partner, or myself. Several times through the first few years, I had hired minority employee's. But on every single occasion, for one reason or another, they just didn't work out. The main reason's were because of low production, or missing too much time from work.

Be that as it may. We wound up with no minority employee's in our small company. After about two and a half years, we managed to secure a very large contract ,in the city of Omaha Nebraska. Now, you have to understand. At this point in the growth of our company, our Operational Capital Output was tremendous! So in order to be able to purchase the equipment and the umbrella insurance policies that were required to obtain the signed contract. We needed to secure a Small Business loan of apprx. $250.000 dollars.

Both my partner and myself were quite literally, on" Cloud Nine" because we knew that our line of business credit was outstanding, So we set up an appointment with the Small Business Administration to secure the loan, the following Monday. Their representative came to our office, and we proceeded to go through our Financial, and Employment records. Never once, did we anticipate any problems. But that most certainly didn't turn out to be the case, in our particular situation!

Everything was going just fine until we got to our employee history reports. Then, there was an huge change in his attitude and demeanor. Now, you have to remember. We had acquired small business loans in the past when we were a much smaller company, with no problem at all. But now as we sat there waiting for this gentleman to give us the verdict, it was obvious we were in for some bad news. He simply stated "off the record", that because we didn't have any minority employee's, the loan would not be approved!

Even though our employee records clearly stated that we had hired several minority employee's in the past, and the reason's for their eventual termination. Because we didn't have any current minorities on our payroll, we would not qualify for the loan! In plain terms. Because all of the employee's and the owners were of the caucasin race, our loan application was denied!

Now, remember my friends. This was a multi-million dollar contract, and it would have taken care of twelve married couples, and their children! Believe me when I say, we sat there in a total state of shock! We just couldn't believe it! Both my partner and myself even went so far as to guarantee the hiring of minorities in the employment contract, if we were able to secure the necessary funding! The answer was still the same!

So. Is reverse discrimination a problem in this country? I can tell you with absolute clarity, that it happens every single day, in the United States of America! Because of the decision made by the SBA that day, our small company eventually had to close it's doors, and file Bankruptcy! It took my partner and myself literally years to recover. Even then the financial lose was tremendous, to say the least.!
So, in conclusion of this article. Let me state for the record. Reverse discrimination has and does occur on a regular basis in this country! I only spoke of one particular situation in this article, but I personally know of several others that occured in the last several years! Each and everyone are absolute fact, and every single one, is just as heart-breaking!

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