Our friend and neighbor, Marsha Weber, told us this story about a sales experience she had at the high-end car dealership where she was a sales associate.
One Saturday a young African-American couple drove on the lot. The man and woman both sported Afros. They wore shabby jeans, sweatshirts and worn sneakers.
An older salesman was in line to wait on the next customer. Marsha said he looked the couple over and decided they weren’t worth his time, since they were Black and wore shabby clothes. “Waste of my time,” he mumbled to Marsha.
Marsha, a warm, friendly person by nature, said she would be glad to help the couple. She introduced herself to them. The couple looked at a few cars. The man turned to Marsha and said, “We’ll take two. A pink one for my wife and a blue one for me.”
They went inside the dealership to fill out paper work. Marsha told us the man wrote a check for the sticker price on both cars.
The man was Lionel Richie, who lived just up the road in Tuskegee, Alabama. Richie, a Motown legend, is a singer, song-writer, record producer and former lead singer for the Commodores.
Marsha got a fat commission check. The guy who turned the couple down got a big dose of the price of prejudice.
