"You are fair [skinned] as a black woman, you get certain privileges in white culture that other ... [blacks] don't get." — William "Reyn" Archer III, quoted in the October 20 Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The statement above was made by the top health official in the State of Texas. He is white. He is also a close friend of George W. Bush, but that should come as no surprise to anyone. Racists in America are drawn to G. W. Bush in much the same way that flies are attracted to waste, but then I digress. In all fairness to Bush, he did describe Archer's words as "inappropriate".
Doctor Demetria Montgomery is an African-American. She has filed a complaint against Archer with Texas' health and human services commission. Her complaint is based on a conversation that she secretly taped in February. She says that he subjected her to analysis of what he termed as her. "spiritual problems". He also referred to her race and to "lynching". He made equally disparaging remarks about Latina/os, and teen pregnancy.
When he learned of the secret tape, he fired her. Without the tape, it would have been his word against hers, and we all know that Archer would have denied ever having made such statements.
I salute Dr Montgomery for her courage. Many have endured in silence what she has gone through because they knew that in the event of public exposure such conversations would be denied and reduced to naught for lack of proof.
A tape recorder can be a powerful tool for women and minorities in the work place. If more supervisors feared them, that would be a good thing.
BY BRANDON ASTOR JONES
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns (include your name and full return address on the envelope, or prison authorities may refuse to deliver it). He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G3-77, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA, or email <BrandonAstorJones@hotmail.com>. Brandon is seeking a publisher for his autobiography, Growing Down. Please notify him of any possible leads. Visit Brandon's web page at <http://www.BrandonAstorJones.com>.]