The Nuclear N Word

I was one of those people who believed that racism was dead. I attended school in Iowa, with a largely Caucasian population, and was pushed by my teachers to attain academic excellence, with never a thought that my color might be a setback. I have worked in corporate America for the past 14 years, and have been promoted, paid, and generally treated well by my co-workers. Then, in the culmination of all that I believed, in 2008 we elected our first black president. While many of my friends and family would tell me that racism was still alive and that there were people that actually hated blacks. And then the nuclear N-bomb was dropped.


To explain the situation properly, I feel I must go back to the beginning of the story. After I shut down my own company, I started a new business with Am____ I_____. I have done well there, been paid more than I could.have ever hoped, doing a job that is almost as easy as breathing for me. All of my training at fortune 500 companies, my previous self employment experience, all culminated in my astounding success with A_________I________. The only fly in the jelly was Jimmy.

Jimmy was a troubled individual. As he strolled through the office, he trailed a grim and suffocating cloud of drama with him. We constantly would butt heads. Jimmy wanted to be an agent, but due to his felony status could not be licensed with the state, and so hated on all the other agents. When I decided to take my career to the next level and start building my own team, J___ insisted that I work with Jimmy to do my interviews. Not wanting to rock the boat, I complied. However, after 3 months of calling people in for interviews, none of my people were ever hired. Odd, huh?

I decided to hire on my own, then Jimmy began to abuse me in the office. Jimmy would constantly question my qualifications, and once, shouted at me in front of my team members. In particular, I remember one instance where I had set up to do a job fair. I notified my manager, J___ of what I was doing, and then the day before I was to go, Jimmy found out. He accosted me in the front desk area, shouting that I didn’t even know what I was doing; on whose authority I thought I could do a job fair. While I was seething with anger, I very civilly told him that I am a Senior Professional in Human Resources, that I ran my own staffing company, and that I was exceedingly well qualified to attend a job fair to find new talent. And furthermore, I was confused as to why he would feel that I needed permission from anyone, much less him, to do so. After that, he left me alone, but I knew I had created an enemy.....