[honeychile]

Okay, this is my experience. I am a geriatric counselor; I visit clients, sum up the type of help they need, and then send the appropriate person.

Most of the people we subcontract are nurses aides and companions. There are some excellent ones who have burnt out on having 25 patients a day in a nursing home but are wonderful on a one to one situation, and there are others who are doing this work because, frankly, they don't know what else they can do.

I wish I had a nickel for each time I've scheduled the person I thought would be best, and immediately gotten a telephone call from a distraught son or daughter saying, "Of course, I'm not prejudiced, but Mother is very old school..." or the sort. I try to explain that this is a person I would have take care of my own mother - doesn't make a difference. One beautiful, lovely woman of color had a door slammed in her face after the man said, "We've never had a n** in our house!"

My career has made me see a side that I have never really experienced before, and there's a lot of heartbreak involved. And yes, there has been reverse discrimination in our field, too.

I don't know what the answer or solution is - I just know that there are times when I realize that my life is easier simply because of my birth. Maybe that's why, as I delve into my own genealogy, I also try to learn as much as I can about doing African-American genealogy. As my mama has said so many times, there have been blacks on this continent as long as there have been whites, and we have an obligation to try to get along!