Discrimination for a Small Business Administration Loan

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Today I will discuss a personal experience of my friend Gary from the mid-1990’s when I worked at the Headquarters of the Commander Naval Air Force, United States Pacific Fleet, in San Diego (Coronado), California.

Gary worked in our Word Processing Center. Gary served for 20 years in the United States Navy as a Yeoman, which is an Administrative Assistant, and Gary obtained the rank of Chief Petty Officer before he retired and then he went to work in the Word Processing Center.

Gary is White and his wife is Hispanic from Mexico.

He realized that Police Officers are out on patrol and then they have to return to the precinct and spend from one to 4 hours typing up the reports of what happened on their patrols. Gary wanted to find an easier way for the Police Officers to do their reports. He wanted to make it simple for the Police Officers and reduce the amount of time they spend typing up reports so that perhaps they could spend more time on patrol.

Gary’s business concept was very simple. He would have the police officers call a number and dictate what happened for that incident and then Gary would transcribe that information into the report. That way when the Police Officer came in from patrol all they had to do was review the already typed report and sign off on it. Instead of taking 30 minutes to one hour to type up one report document the Police Officer would spend maybe 10 to 15 minutes per report saving the Police Officer and the Police Department lots of time and money.

Gary went to the Small Business Administration (SBA) office in San Diego and he made his proposal to them. Their response was shocking. The person at the SBA stated that Gary didn’t have the administrative knowledge or experience to perform this type of work so they denied him a Small Business Administration loan. Gary pleaded his case stating he spend 20 years as an Administrative Assistant, he typed up hundreds of reports during those 20 years, and he spent many hours transcribing dictation. Still the person at the SBA refused to give Gary the loan to start his business.

After three months his wife, the Hispanic from Mexico, encouraged Gary to apply to the SBA for a loan again. This time Gary’s wife went with him to the Small Business Administration office in San Diego. The instant the person at the SBA saw that Gary’s wife was Hispanic from Mexico they jumped up and offered to approve an SBA loan for Gary to start up his business.

Gary’s wife was shocked after hearing what the SBA did to Gary previously. I don’t know the exact words Gary’s wife used to chastise the SBA worker but it was something like the following:

WHAT? MY HUSBAND CAME IN HERE THREE MONTHS AGO TO APPLY FOR A SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION LOAN TO OPEN HIS BUSINESS OF TRANSCRIBING POLICE OFFICER REPORTS FOR THEM AND YOU TOLD HIM NO BECAUSE YOU CLAIMED HE DIDN’T HAVE ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE EVEN THOUGH HE SERVED AS AN ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT FOR OVER 20 YEARS. NOW BECAUSE YOU SEE HIS WIFE, ME, IS MEXICAN SO NOW YOU ARE EXCITED TO APPROVE GARY’S SBA LOAN. NO! NO! NO! I REFUSE TO TAKE MONEY FROM AN ORGANIZATION THAT PRACTICES DISCRIMINATION! GARY LET’S GET OUT OF HERE!

From that point on Gary and his wife opened the transcribing business on their own with their own funds. Sometimes the people and organizations, such as our Government, who say discrimination is illegal, are the ones perpetrating most of the discrimination.