WILLIE

I lived in souther Alabama in the 70's. I grew up in the Midwest and this was the first time I had ever lived any place else. I have to say, it was totally different than any experience I had ever had befor. I was the Department head of the blood distribution for the American Red Cross. We serviced, Alabama, Mississippi, parts of Georgia and parts of Florida. I had two paid employees and 12 volunteers to help get things done. In the blood division of the Red Cross, there were a total of four departments. They were, those who drew the blood(R.N.'s), those who processed the blood(lab tech's), and the maintenance department, beside my department=distribution of the blood. The maintenance department was right next to my department.
When I started working there, I noticed that only African-Americans were in the maintenance department and one of my salaried workers. The entire Red Cross was white except for those who worked in maintenance and my employee. I also was very embarrassed, when Mr. Wille Davis, who was the department head of the maintenance department, would call me "Miss Jody"!
I felt as though I had been transported back to the fifties, with the blatant prejudice that I observed. I also noticed, that every single person in the Red Cross building, called him Willie! The heads of every other deprtment, were addressed by, Mr., Miss, or Doctor, but not the head of the all black maintenance department! I was angry, and sort of scared. I wondered how people whose' chosen professions, were to help people, could be so disrespectful to one of their own co-workers. The men who worked under Willie Davis, were referred to as "boys", no matter how old they were. I was also amazed that the maintenance staff ate in a different part of the building, than the rest of the staff. The whole dynamic of the inference of lesser people, was quite subtle, or so, I think they thought. I needed my job, so my only recourse was to show by example. I would eat, at their invitation, with the maintenance staff. I treated everone with respect, and I always referred to Willie Davis and Mr. Davis! I never did get him to stop calling me "Miss Jody" though. I would love to go back and see if they have caught up with the world in the way all people should be treated. I wonder?

Sabrina Sarhadian

My interview with Sabrina Sarhadian was quite a surprise. I found that the more of the related answers she gave, the more indepth quesstions I had for her. Sabrina is a most interesting person. I found, as I was conducting the interview, that we would digrss into a converstion of what brought her to this point in her life. I had a hard time returning to the relavent questions, which seemed mundain, compaired to her life.

MY INTERVIEW WITH SABRINA SARHADIAN

Sabrina is from Iran, and has her Bacherlors degree from Terahan. Sabrina and her husband came to this country to escape religeous persecutin in Iran, where Syrian Christians were tormented. She is attending community college to have a better understanding of the English language. She had lived in Los Angelas and found that the languages she heard most often, were, Iranian (asyrian and Farsi) and Spanish. She and her husband traveled to Chicago, and encountered much of the same. Sabrina made the siscision to move to a truly mid-western city, where English was spoken.

Sabrina planned to go to I.S.U. but found out that she needs English courses to get into I.S.U., thus bringing her to Heartland to satify I.S.U.s' requirement. Sabrina feels that in the three years she has been in this country, she is "progressivelly learning" all about our culture and feels she is mor confident in herself than she was at this time last year. Sabrina hopes that by next semester, she will have a better understanding of the concepts of composition.

The future looks bright and she is determined to be a successful person. She does hope, as she travels through our educational process, she will be remembered as a nice, but interesting person. Sabrina has two more years before she will be an American Citizen.

He plans after finishing at I.S.U. are to become a Statistician and live and work in Chicago.