Working the night shift at Royal Quality Foods was not an easy or pleasant task. Two functions were performed simultaneously. The plant, about 25,000 square feet, had to be sanitized and ten thousand pounds of cooked meat had to be removed from large walk-in ovens, placed under ice water showers and then into coolers. Each stainless steel rack held about 800 pounds of finished product in vacuum-sealed bags. Coping with temperature extremes was part of the job. A USDA inspector was usually on hand to complicate the process. Sometimes, the shift would end before dawn. Often, it would meld into the morning shift.
Tyrone was a muscular 6’2 football player. Having lost his job when the USFL folded, I hired him to run our night shift. He was never satisfied at work. He constantly complained about a lack of support and insufficient equipment. He became a headache rather than an asset.
One morning a diminutive Vietnamese young man named Bien entered my office. He was looking for work. His English was poor. I hired him to assist Tyrone. Long story short, within a few months Tyrone quit and Bien took charge. The complaining ended. The inspector was happy and the paperwork on my desk in the morning reflected a job well done.
Bien was one of thousands of Vietnamese Boat People who fled communist oppression. He came to America with almost nothing. He was 120 pounds of unqualified grit and determination. Bound to succeed in America, it never occurred to him that he might be a victim. He made himself valuable by learning and doing. When he asked for a raise I was hard pressed to turn him down.
Willard was the plant manager. He grew up a Black man in segregated Virginia. He was a Korean War combat veteran. He knew hardship better then most. His mindset? Work your ass off. He drove his crew like a drill sergeant. On Sunday you’d find him singing with his buddies in church and doting over his grandchildren. He is a salt of the earth gentleman who taught me a great deal about life.
Displaying a similar can-do spirit, his nephew Ricky worked to learn every job in the plant. Why? That would secure his value to the company. On weekends he hustled to build his own business hauling trash. Both men raised wonderful families.
Edson was born in Nigeria and educated in London. He spoke perfect English with a rather heavey accent. Like Will, Rickey and Bien, he worked to climb the ladder of success in a very ugly busoiness.
What separated Tyrone from the others? Growing up in bad neighborhoods, attending inferior schools and suffering some discrimination applied to all of them except Edson. The difference was that Tyrone allowed the imperfections in his life to inhibit his pursuit of opportunity.
Unfortunately, far too many young men in the neighborhood demonstrated Tyrone’s attitude. In the media, at school and in popular culture they were propagandized to feel victimized. It seemed as if a cultural virus had paralyzed the opportunity pursuit region of their nervous systems. It was polio of the can-do spirit. But those who took advantage of the vaccine called optimism and gratitude usually succeeded. It was the young men suffering from cultural paralysis a few weeks ago in Baltimore who were throwing rocks at cops, looting businesses in their neighborhood and treating the people dedicated to keeping them safe as enemy occupiers.
I did encounter a few racist cops, but I also encountered bigoted residents. Most cops were trying desperately to do their jobs. They are not the ones responsible for Baltimore’s ungodly murder rate. They are not responsible for all the beautiful children born into fatherless families. They are not responsible for kids “hanging out” on Sundays instead of dressing up and going to Church. They weren’t the ones breaking into Royal on a regular basis.
The untold story is that solutions to poverty and crime lie not in turning to government or political patronizers. The solutions will be found in a community that chooses to emulate the quiet doers in their midst. Success will come to those who follow the lead of their neighbors who proceed as if their future depends on their own efforts.
Whatever degree of discrimination, lack of diverse representation and funding that existed fifty years ago has been remedied ten fold. Yet, Baltimore has lingered as if time was frozen. When and if a cultural reformation occurs, inner city Baltimore will start down the path to prosperity engineered by a population determined to succeed.
Footnote: 108 homicides in Baltimore since January
35 homicides in May
29 shot, 9 dead over Memorial Day weekend 2015
Well said Mike. It is your attitude that will determine your choices and your outcomes. Thank you for sharing this. We can all play a victim card and give up our power if we choose and on the flip side May there always be the Biens to show us the way.