The Old White Boys Club: Part 2
See Part 1 of The Old White Boys Club
In 1988, I communicated to the Superintendent my strong desire to be transferred to another school as Vice Principal or Principal. Eight Principalships had become available and were advertised by the Durham Board of Education. I applied for a promotion to any one of the 8 schools and was granted an interview. I prepared rigorously for the interview and hoped for better results. I had a bothersome memory of a question which a Superintendent had asked me in a prior interview: “why would I appoint you, a black man, as Principal, in a white neighbourhood? If you were involved in a dispute with a white parent, would you expect the board of education to support you?” That says it all about their mentality, doesn’t it?
At the new interview, four Superintendents, one Principal, and the Director of Education (all white men) were present. When I entered the interview room, I was disturbed that the Director kept his back turned to me, never making eye contact. The first question, asked by the Superintendent of Human Resources, shocked me: “Mr. Nelson, why are you even in this room? If you had read the postings for the positions, you would have seen that you need to have a master’s degree.”
The extent to which they refused to see me as a viable candidate became crystal clear. None of them had even bothered to look at my application! I responded:” Sir, had you bothered to read my resume and application which I delivered to your office three weeks ago as per your instructions, you would have noticed that I have not one, but three master’s degrees from the University of Toronto”.
Old White Boys Club Rule #9: Although white men often lay claim to their achievements as the product of their superior education and qualifications, they actively ignore, undermine, and overlook the superior achievements of more qualified black candidates to maintain their positions and status.
The Director then made eye contact with me for the first and last time during the interview to state, “Mr. Nelson, people do make mistakes sometimes you know”. Their openly hostile and deliberately intimidating behaviour and lack of engagement with me and my work histories and experiences made it clear that I was not being engaged in a real interview. By the time I left the room I understood that my only option for some type of justice was to file a human rights complaint against the Durham Board of Education.
Old White Boys Club Rule #10: White men will refuse to engage in normal employment and promotion processes in unbiased ways and to uphold ethical standards of fairness to keep qualified black candidates out or purge them from their institutions and deny them access to titles, raises, or any other benefits of their success and attainment.
I informed my white Principal about the interview and my plans to file the complaint. I also discussed the matter with my white Superintendent. Unsurprisingly, both discouraged me, warning that I could not win a case against the Durham Board of Education. Their insider networks of gossip were operating at lightening speed and shortly thereafter the acting Director of Education called to arrogantly pronounce that I could not win a case because the board had more money and had better connections at the Human Rights Commission. That he was basically announcing his intention to unethically derail my case before it had even been filed seemed not to trouble him in the least. But I did not let that deter me and I contacted the Ontario Men’s Teacher Federation and was granted a meeting with a select tribunal three months after my application.
Old White Boys Club Rule #11: White men will announce their unethical and illegal intentions to derail, inhibit, or harm your progress, plans, and goals because they are accustomed to operating with impunity and they believe that the often less powerful black adversary will comply or back down.
Three months later, I was given 90 minutes to present my case to the select committee and I was allowed to take one observer with me. I asked one of my best friends, then teaching at Harwood Collegiate, to attend the meeting. At the end of my presentation and one hour of questioning by the committee members, the chairman commented to his group that they would normally take about 2 months to decide, regarding whether to provide legal support for my case. But instead, he decided on the spot that the compelling nature of my case warranted an immediate decision that same evening. It must be understood that the nature and the complexity of my case, one that would play out across years, necessitated that I gain access to funding for legal support. The committee members agreed, and my friend and I left the room while they deliberated for one hour.
Once back in the boardroom, the chairman disclosed that the committee had always suspected that the Durham Board of Education was a racist institution, but that they had never been presented with compelling evidence to substantiative their suspicions…until then. I had been the first to furnish them with the supporting documentation. The chairman then stated that they would provide me with a lawyer at the Federation’s expense.
Old White Boys Club Rule #12: White men would like us to believe that we do not have allies in our fight. That’s hardly ever true. The problem rests in finding and informing your allies and marshalling resources.
Over the next 2 weeks my lawyer and I prepared and filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission of Ontario. The commission appointed a white male investigator. Although we furnished him with the names and contact details of 26 colleagues who were willing to testify on my behalf, it quickly became clear that the investigator (whose responsibility it was to remain unbiased) did not approach his work in an honest manner. Instead, he was wined and dined by board personnel and produced a false report for the Human Rights Commission stipulating that he had uncovered no wrongdoing and no evidence of racism by Durham Board personnel. Stunningly, the investigator had produced his report without speaking to any of my 26 witnesses who would have corroborated my experiences.
Old White Boys Club Rule #13: White men often believe that none of the rules or regulations apply to them and frequently circumvent or ignore structures and policies that inhibit them from maintaining their power or withholding it from others.
Instead of preparing for battle against an obviously corrupt investigator who had breached basic rules of fraternization, my lawyer was at a loss and confused about how to proceed. Understanding that he was incapable of engaging in a legal fight with an unscrupulous opponent, I petitioned the teachers federation to appoint a new lawyer to my case. In the interim, having lost confidence in this lawyer, I took it upon myself to respond point by point to the so-called findings of the biased investigator and sent the document to the Human Rights Commission myself.
Old White Boys Club Rule #14: White men routinely employ immoral and illegal strategies to exhaust people who challenge their authority and right to rule, relying on their ability to force their opponents into quitting the fight.
The commission granted me a hearing stating that the investigator had not completed a thorough investigation in a competent manner. He was demoted and sent to a smaller city. (Please note that after an obvious failure of professional responsibility, a breach of policy, and a massive error in judgement, this white man was not fired!) I worked tirelessly and cooperatively alongside my new lawyer to prepare for the hearing. The hearing lasted 39 days of which I was on the stand for five, being grilled by the board lawyers. During that period, I was not allowed to communicate with my lawyer or to consult my notes which recalled experiences across a twenty-year career.
I was saddened that two of my former white male Principals, men with whom I’d worked amicably, side-by-side for a combined eight years and considered close friends, testified against me, arguing that I was not ready to be a Principal. They testified that I did not have “it,” some supposedly elusive, magical quality to be a Principal. But deals had been struck behind the scenes. These two men had been offered promotions to the rank of Superintendent for their defamatory testimony.
Old White Boys Club Rule #15: White men rarely relinquish power by firing other white men, even incompetent ones, and often promote and reward their fellow white men for falling in line with and acting upon their racist agendas.
Luckily, I have been a “pack rat” throughout my life and my wife had carefully preserved and archived all of my employment documents. In a time long before photocopiers, scanners, and “the Cloud,” we routinely kept paper files of important records in boxes in our home. Those files included every glowing review, reference letter, and report that I had ever received from my two “friends” who took the stand to claim that I was incompetent and unfit for a job for which I was clearly over-qualified, experienced, and highly educated. Needless to say, with my evidence, my lawyer easily discredited both witnesses.
To understand the extent of the board’s corruption, it is important to note that four Principals had been offered promotions to Superintendent in exchange for negative testimony about me. My two “friends” mentioned above accepted the bribe and neither benefitted from the promotion for long. After suffering a debilitating illness, I was summoned to the hospital by the wife of one of them who implored me to have pity because he was wracked with guilt about his betrayal. He passed away in his early 50s, shortly after I had assured him that I forgave him. Meanwhile, the other man had to step away from the ill-gotten dream job to and take an early retirement to care of his ailing wife.
Old White Boys Club Rule #16: Even “good” white men will play “follow the leader” when called upon to stand up against deserving black fellow employees and maintain the status quo.
Tune in for Part 3 of The Old White Boys Club and see how Max persevered through a brutal court case to gain victory over a toxic board that was riddled with corruption and racism in its highest offices.