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"Fix This Then I'll Marry You" — The Female CEO Challenged A Black Mechanic

"Fix This Then I'll Marry You" — The Female CEO Challenged A Black Mechanic

Chapter 4

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Sloan walked in. She wasn't looking for him; she was passing through on her way to the executive elevator. But she saw him, saw the book, and something about the image—a Black man in stained coveralls reading about Ferrari engines—offended her in a way she couldn't articulate.She crossed the room in four steps, pulled the book from his hands. "What is this?""Technical manual, ma'am. Ferrari V12.""I know what it is." She held it between two fingers like it was contaminated. "What I don't know is why someone like you thinks he can understand it." She dropped it in the trash can. The metal lid clanged shut. "Stick to what you're good at: mopping."She left.The breakroom was silent. Three other employees sat at nearby tables. None of them moved; none of them spoke.Yancey waited until the elevator doors closed. Then he walked to the trash can, reached in, and pulled out the manual. He wiped the coffee grounds off the cover with his sleeve, sat back down, opened to the same page, and kept reading.Darnell found him there ten minutes later. "Brother, I saw what happened. You got to let it go.""I am letting it go.""No, you're reading the book she threw away. That's the opposite of letting it go."Yancey turned a page. "The book didn't do anything wrong."Darnell sat down across from him, lowered his voice. "Thirteen diversity hires in the last three years. You know how many are still here?""You.""Just me. Everyone else quit or got pushed out. They make it so bad you leave on your own. Then they say you weren't a culture fit. Clean paperwork, dirty hands.""I'm not quitting."
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"Fix This Then I'll Marry You" — The Female CEO Challenged A Black Mechanic

19 Part