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Denying the Existence of Racism is Unconstitutional and Immoral
I was earning nine dollars per hour as an employee with the Mental Health Center of Denver fifteen years ago, assiduously trying to cobble together a semblance of a professional career a few months after obtaining my release from the psychiatric wing of a hospital.
Eighty percent of my job responsibilities revolved around driving clients around the city of Denver. Clients, in this case, were mentally ill members of society subsisting on a diet of alcohol and illegal drugs. For many of these individuals, the Mental Health Center of Denver is the conduit to an escape from a harrowed existence on the city’s meanest streets.
They labeled me as a peer assistant, because I was diagnosed with a mental illness, and the label frustrated the hell out of me. I’d come to grips with being diagnosed as bipolar-depressive, but I was unlike the people we served, the poor unfortunates roaming the streets, strung out on drugs and alcohol. I lived at the house with my mother and father, had obtained stable employment, and could brandish evidence of a prestigious college degree (Boston University).
The social workers at MHCD, the majority of whom were young and attractive white women, knew I was also a current client. I was way ahead of my peers though, successively surpassing markers signifying recovery…
