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.
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