I was selected as a semi-finalist and was called in to Coca-Cola Corporation for an interview in front of a group panel. The chair of the interview committee asked me a question. She asked, "Your writing is exactly what we are looking for....but you are White. How can you be White and believe in Diversity?"
I was so taken aback by the question that I fumbled my answer. I replied that I had friends of all races, colors, ages, and genders. I began to tell the committee of my beliefs, and about one third of the way through my answer, I noticed the man at the head of the table, closed his interview book, thanked me for coming, and said, "let's go to lunch." Needless-to-say, I did not advance past this interview. I received a letter of consolation in the mail along with an Olympic pin. I have always wondered, "my writing is exactly what Coca-Cola was looking for, so why did my skin color matter?" I did notice that the consolation letter did say that my "story was so impressive, we encourage you to enter phase 3 of the program."
At this juncture in my life, I was 33, and had just buried my best friend only 3 days before. What I could not tell the members of the interview team that I am gay, and that I had just lost 17 friends to the AIDs epidemic, and that the recent loss of my best friend from college left me drained. At that point in my life, I did not have the strength or courage to face another challenge. I could not speak the truth that I am gay. In Georgia you could be fired for being gay with no just cause other than your sexual orientation. (This remains true today in Georgia, and in other states, too.) I was afraid, afraid of being fired, afraid of being ostracized because so many people in my conservative Cobb County, gays were being shunned by the County Commissioners*, and so many people believed that "all gays have aids amd all fags should die." These were my fears, possibly unwarranted, but warranted and reinforced by the media at that time.
See the essay below this letter.
Living in Atlanta brings to mind an image of the New South where hope over bigotry and freedom from oppression are intertwined
with the magnolia memories of the Old South, of my heritage of generations of southerners branching across the states, but with roots here in Georgia.
Living in Atlanta has provided me an opportunity to learn in its major universities and colleges, an opportunity to fulfill my American dream to become a teacher, and an opportunity to create my own personal garden where new traditions flourish.
Atlanta provides me a spirit of oneness, the peach of friendship, and the Stone Mountain of acceptance. I see the freedom flags flying during dogwood days of Spring--in parades as celebrations of dreams, of life, of victories, of holidays, and of art and music.
And now, I see Atlanta as a city of international fellowship, of unity among nations in the games of strength of the human physique, but more-so in the strength of the human spirit.
Atlanta is the Mecca beckoning dreamers. Atlanta is a city where we lay the wreath of dreams--the city where all residents "have a dream."
Robert Robinson
4-15-1996
*http://articles.philly.com/1994-08-28/sports/25840464_1_gay-rights-gay-demonstrators-cobb-county
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