I grew up poor in a wealthy suburb of Detroit. My high school education was spectacular and many of my classmates went on to Ivy League colleges.

My dream beginning in the sixth grade was to become a broadcast or recording engineer. I was lucky in that radio drama was taught in the 8th through 12th grades by two teachers who had been producers at NBC radio. They along with virtually all other women in broadcasting had gotten fired and replaced by returning veterans after WW2. To this day our field is dominated by men. Ironically a woman named Judith Waller had actually created most broadcast programing from sportscasts to situation comedy.

In 1964 I was looking for a summer job related to recording and somebody sent me to Motown Records as a joke. A little less than a year later I was offered a job. I found myself working at a mostly black company surrounded by many high school dropouts who were smarter than my classmates who went on to Harvard and Yale! Motown also had brilliant women holding many executive positions.

I really hate to think how much incredible talent has been lost to sexism and racism. It’s a thrill to finally see people waking up but the amount of unconscious and explicit racism I encounter is still staggering.