I am writing to say that I was deeply touched by the story about Charles Hickman and his encounter with the racists animals that he had to call his 'fellow co-workers'.

I am a 51 years old white man with some mixed feelings about racism, and apparently, a lot of ignorance. 

You see, for a long time, I have had the idea that racism has pretty much faded out in our society and that any remaining animosities were pretty much kept to one's self in public.  I believed that, in a way, many African-American people were simply using racism as a catch all excuse for everything that would go wrong.

Then I heard Mr. Hickman's story of his horrible experience.  I could hardly believe that this happened in 2003.  It was like hearing a story from the segregationist South from the 1950's.

As I listened to Mr. Hickman's words and the tone of his voice, I felt that this man sounded like such a nice person, and what these co-workers were missing by not making him part of the team.  I felt some of the cruelty that he, and every other African American citizen of this country has been put through by my fellow whites and our fellow Americans.

I am amazed at the heartless disregard for this man's feelings by these ignorant few.  I feel like I need to apologize to Charles for this incident on behalf of the white people in this country who do care about our fellow African-American citizens.

That this sort of thing still goes on in this country, in the 21st century, makes me feel ashamed to be white and sad to be American.

Dan Roeglin
Milwaukee, WI