White Like Me

Aryans and Libertarians

In the mid-eighties, I took a job at an ice-production factory in Madison, Wisconsin. I walked in wearing a suit and tie, and was hired on the spot. The proprietors of the family-owned business loved me, and even allowed me to sleep at the warehouse until I could procure an apartment of my own.

Everything was going great until one day, when John, the patriarch of the family and company president, who had been reclining meditatively on the couch, said, "Zenberg...(pondering), isn't that Jewish?" From that point on, I was dealt with in a suspicious manner, and my work was continuously scrutinized unfairly because I wasn't necessarily Aryan...like them. I was however a Libertarian, but that didn't "make no never-mind" to them.

As time went on, their racist character was revealed more and more. In addition to the ice factory, they also owned the largest liquor store in Madison, where they had me stock shelves when ice production* was slow. I was absolutely disgusted when I observed how these people treated the occasional black patron. Here's the usual scenario:

A pair of black men enter the store... Immediately, Bob, the oldest kid in the family, would grab his loaded rifle, and stand poised, ready for an opportunity to shoot one or both of them if they tried anything funny.

I couldn't believe there were really people like that in the world. I grew up in Utah, and thought the folks there were backwards, but I never experienced this level of racism in the Beehive State.

Poetique Justice

Not long before I quit to take a good job at a pharmacy, they had hired a new kid to work at the liquor store. They were so happy with the new brawny blond, curly-haired, hard working kid. He was the size of a mountain, and could lift cases of booze with the greatest of ease. A real nice guy too. When I got to know him better, I discovered that he was albino, and that his family was black.

* Ice was in less demand during parts of the winter. Ironically, there were times when it was colder outside than it was in the building where we made the ice.