The first is the misguided belief by many Americans that Dr. King was a black leader, that the civil-rights movement was by and for blacks, and that his holiday is exclusively a black holiday. They forget the sweeping changes it made in law, politics, religion and education that made America a more open and democratic society for all. The second reason is deep-seated corporate racism. In the last two years black employees have filed colossal discrimination lawsuits against Coca-Cola, Microsoft and dozens of other companies. The charges are almost always the same.
Claimants say that they are given the worst assignments, lower pay and fewer chances for promotions.
Corporate executives vehemently deny that they practice any discrimination. But the paltry number of blacks that have cracked the top-level corporate glass ceiling is an indication of pervasive corporate bias. There are still only a handful of black CEOs at the Fortune 1000 corporations. Nearly 10 out of 10 senior managers are white males. As the discrimination lawsuits show, blacks are often regarded by their corporate peers as pariahs.