"In My Father's Village, Nobody Could Read...He Moved to America and Became an Engineer", A Client Was Disrespecting My Employees, So I Fired Them and Superman Versus the Ku Klux Klan

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I'm always upgrading my car because I need to because I want to today it's custom rims for my ride tomorrow, it might be a new driver side seat cushion and eBay motors.com always has what I need. They got over 122 million car parts all at the right price that's perfect for me because I'm a car guy arrives killing the morning almost on okay I'm a car fanatic eBay motors. Let's ride Vanguard is owned by your investors chose a plan sponsor no matter what you were your employees goals are there hours to. That's the value of ownership. Visit Vanguard.com discover ownership from shareholders on the functional Vanguard Vanguard market Corporation Street this is Lisa Beebe and this is our American stories to show where America is the store and the American people and we love to hear your story. Send them our American stories.com up next to story from Kevin Sammy, the son of Indian-American immigrants who appeared in Forbes 30 under 30 for law and policy in 2016. Today Kevin shares with us the story of his family's love for the sport he played football and why they value his education so much they can awaken.

I grew up in Canton Ohio I and first generation Indian-American. So my mom and dad, the emigrated from rural South India. Dad came to the United States to his doctorate. He ended up moving to Ohio to work at the company as an engineer and that's was born in. I had what I believe is a pretty archetypal Midwest upbringing and in a lot of ways I played football in high school and ended up playing college to it.

Don't think I would have if not for the fact that the group so close to the Hall of Fame and in the culture. There was so deeply steeped in football. I didn't know I would be as good as I was playing college is difficult to do and I see that give credit to everyone who makes it to Division I law, my parents, they really wanted to learn the game after I became interested after be answered to do well and I got Luke's colleges I was you Allstate for two years and in the state of Ohio which is adeno known for good football. It went from me trying my my hand in it to the Indian families that would come from the parts of the state and around the region who come watch my high school games just as a function of being now interested in this game they didn't have any other reason to be. Let's say before, during Thanksgiving.

The turkey bowl that thinks given game that NFL plays every year.

All of the Indian families would come to my my house because my dad would teach the rules to teach about the game.

Worked there. Fewer things I feel more strongly about terms of what I've shaped them. Even in the game of football. I very much grew up in the way that I think we all hope America to be one that is not always, but predominantly accepting of difference where this sort of multicultural experiment is more or less working in Google cofounder was refugee, but an enormous amount of American winners of Nobel prizes are immigrants. It's an amazing place where that type of reality exists, I should say segue into my parents coming part of the reason I got involved in politics latched onto Barack Obama's candidacy is he talked about his famous DNC speech that really launched him into the public either talked about his father's family farm goats in Kenya. My dad's family farm goats in India is a fascinating place largest democracy on the planet. The caste system in India was a vestige of British rule and it doesn't officially exist, but the caste system is still a kind of unfortunate vestige of the past that has some kind of irrelevance and in modern Indian society. So my family is from a relatively lower cost.

When we are not from the height higher cost of fuel. The reason is I say that is you know I am from a lineage of the meat eating farmer South Indian people uneducated.

My mom and dad were the first in their families to really go to school. My father was the first to go to go to any school and on higher education grew up in a village with no running water and electricity could read as an illiterate community as a neighboring village with her was one guy that used to call him in my parents mother tongue pummel a Tamil these to call in the reading uncle because he was the one guy with in the you know however many mile radius. The kind of read some people would bring him letters are a very small amount of things that needed to be read added the premium that collateral and content to the translator to read for them.

There's a moment in my dad's childhood where there are handful little kids hit one of one of which is him and some of the parents thought themselves look like let's pay this guy a few rupees a month right to to teach our kids lately and basic basic normal basic literacy, hollowed out a little clay less than five square-foot space that was a temple with some old idols and things in there that God knows how long they've been there. Took some things out. They bring sand from the river bed to coat the floor so it was fresh and soft and invaluable and they would use their fingers to write in the sand as a chalkboard and to do letters and numbers and when the sand was course when it was a hotter day or was it soft anymore. Their fingers would bleed and so it's kind of indigenous vegetable in an area that they would crack open and they would put on their fingers like thimbles and to protect them after they surgically to keep continuing their lessons. That's how my dad learned to read. He ended up going to a nearby government school owes 13 climbers away.

His father, my grandfather save money for the year to buy a bike so he could bike there. One thing what's the next and next in education was really a way out. Of that type of poverty will just say in a very much so the American dream. I mean he came the United States to give his family better shot to sort of raise the quality of life by an order of magnitude. I think my appreciation for being American is so rooted in that and how is it I don't blame people for not knowing. I wish I wish I could show them but how is it that you can't appreciate the value of a place like the United States when you can see how far you can go is that possibility, that is what makes us play special and you know and I spoke a little about football but the game meant so much to me. It really built me and a special thanks to Faith Buchanan and Monty Montgomery the editing and postproduction of the story. The special thanks also to Kevin Sammy Sherrick in the end his father's and mother story and the American dream story that so many immigrants come here to pursue and today Kevin worked in R0 accompany moving the ball forward on biosafety. Find out more about what he's up to.

At that company go to R0.com that's R0.com how can you not appreciate or value this country when you see how far can come for Kevin about America.

His father well no running water in his community. The first in his family to even have the ability to read, comes to America becomes an engineer and that next-generation.

Oh my goodness, you know the rest of the story you just heard a terrific story about the American dream about poverty about immigration and about the ability of America to absorb different people from different places Kevin Sammy story here on our Americans. We have been here the host eval American story every day on the show were bringing inspiring stories from across this great country, very smart, big cities and small towns, but we truly can't do the show without our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make if you level go to L American stories.com and click the donate button give a little nibble go to L American stories.com and give millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year and United healthcare can help you feel confident about your choices for those eligible Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15 through December 7. If you're working past age 65. You might be able to delay Medicare enrollment.

Depending on your employer coverage.

It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be this@uhcmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more United healthcare helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop for small business insurance. I need my State Farm agent make sure my business days piping equal and confident the small business owners to help you best.

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The next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is. That's because this big pile of dirty clothes is not all three clear mega packs have your back purchase all three clear mega packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types and we continue with our American stories, and now it's time for our do the right thing series about ethical dilemmas that it's sponsored by our friends the Daniels fund. Today we bring you a young voice out of New York City, so my name is Catherine Menchu. I felt really frustrated by the tools that were available to help me navigate my career and so I started thinking what if you could go online and get career advice peak inside companies and a sense for different career paths in different roles and jobs and opportunities all in one place and eventually I stopped thinking about it and I don't then I started a business is about 25 when I started this point in time I was probably working north of 80 maybe 90 hours a week. I pitched hundred and 48 investors before I was able to close our seed round of capital and I also had to building by the business, so there were times when I was getting from investors all day and I would go home now. Let's call it 930 10 PM I do another couple hours of answering email. All the work that I couldn't get to during the day is going to bed at 2 AM between 2:59 AM every night. Sometimes later I would try," and be asleep by two and he knows it was hectic. It was insane, but at the same time. I never loved anything more than I loved building business and it also felt like such a gift to be working on something that was so meaningful and important jobs and careers like people driving intense amount of meaning from where they work, even though you know they were days that I wasn't sure where you make it through.

So early in the company's history we were scrambling hard for every customer every client and it often felt like each deal he signed was going to be the difference between success or failure between the business surviving to live another day and going out of business so every deal is really hard-fought and I remember probably is probably about a year and 1/2 and I heard someone on my team that they were having a lot of issues with the client recently signed Jan for asking related issues with issues as broad or it can mean a lot of different things again, it became clear that the client was not treating our people in a way that align with our values. It was they were being incredibly rude and disrespectful. I initially got involved in the relationship and told the senior most contact we had the client that I had some concerns about how their team was treating my staff and that it was important that they did not do that.

They seem to take it very seriously. They were very kind but when I went to check back in later – a week or two or three later with my team. It seems pretty clear that behavior had changed and I remember thinking about the situation for a while and trying to think about what was the best thing to do at this client were being very kind to me. They were just just truly being absolutely terrible to members of my team and Eli felt like.

In some ways it made it worse that they were treating the less experienced members of the team so much worse is as if they felt like they could do that and so were talking about it with my cofounder Alex and ultimately came to the fact that, given that we had tried warning that we try ask nicely change their behavior. This was a company that we were willing to do business with that we are interested in doing business with so getting on the phone with them and think it would be canceling the contract and refunding the money and that was hard. It was a bit scary weekend which didn't have a lot of money to spare and so it was painful to get back, but I also felt like it was really important that I set standards for how people treat my team when I told my team that I was going to fire this client. I don't think they initially believe me they appreciated. I was standing up for them, but imagined that I would emerge from the second phone call with some some result that wasn't the client being fired, and there was a real there was a real relief and there is a real appreciation when when I said that wasn't what happened and that we would be working with this company anymore and I think it's a really powerful example for you, my willingness to forgo revenue to the business in order to do the right thing where people and in particular because the mission of the Muses is about helping people navigate their careers and find that best fit job company and career was also a way of saying that we just didn't believe that a company that was going to be behaving in that way place on you you you only really know what your values are until you're willing to defend them can be very easy to say that believe in X, Y, and Z but it's when push hits of make a hard call. It really becomes clear enough. If you're if you put your money where your mouth. This look at one of the hardest things about being a leader is making calls.

A lot of calls are not black and white, there are other clients that have been no little prickly here a little bit difficult and I certainly don't think that you need to go around finding clients left and right if they step an inch outside of your prescribed ideal communication method and the same time.

Sometimes people just crossed the line in a way that is deeply egregious and I think that I certainly took a lot of knocks. As I was building in years and I'm sure my team dealt with a lot of crazy situations and a lot of difficult people but I remember this one just felt it felt too far and I think that it's such a powerful statement for a team.

When you draw the line around what you want except it's frankly it's really powerful for an individual sort of the concept of boundaries large and again I eat I believe in giving people second chances.

I believe in being gracious. I also believe that a lot of humans are going through a lot of stuff and so when someone shows up to a conversation or an email exchange or a meeting with aggression or or with rudeness area with different behaviors and try and remember that I don't know what they're dealing with and and and the same time you know there's just certain patterns of repeated behavior that I think you've got to remove from your life and so you know, just because I personally wasn't having to deal with this client in my role as CEO. Once it became clear to me how they were behaving in the impact I was having on my team.

I felt Eli. I felt like it was the right thing to do and didn't recredit friends and I think even if the knees failed. I I am so I don't go in for granted going out on the field and giving it my all and the fact that we were ultimately after years of struggle ultimately able to build a really you know successful business that now has a brand in the space and yet you know I'm sure that the majority of Americans are probably not familiar with the news, yet we're kind of a joke that were like in between her stage where we are much bigger than that. The startup that we used to be, and we have you know I think like 75 million people worldwide.

Here comes the Muses some form rather that were so much smaller than the big players in no one.

And now we just got to work on form you been listening to Jeffrey Minshew till her story or do the right thing seriously.

Deborah was the fault of the Daniels fund on our American story millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year and United healthcare can help you feel confident about your choices for those eligible Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15 through December 7. If you're working past age 65. You might be able to delay Medicare enrollment. Depending on your employer coverage. It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be UHC Medicare health.com to learn more United healthcare helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop for small business insurance.

I need my State Farm agent make sure my business days piping hot and I think cool and confident.

The small business owners to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on like that neighbor there. Call your local State Farm agent for quote today doing household chores can Artie be time-consuming and tedious. There's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done can be overwhelming for anyone. If you want to get those larger laundry loads done right and get back to your life. Try all three clear maggot packs all three clear mega packs are bigger packs two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry all three clear mega packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and their dental and skin which is great for any family sensitive skin needs my family. We definitely have sensitive skin. The next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is. That's because this big pile of dirty clothes. All three clear mega packs have your back purchase all three clear mega packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types.

This is our American stories about mixed Joey Cortez brings you a story about a fictional character we all know and love how you would team up with the real-life undercover agent to take down a truly vicious villain. Over the years has fought many villain including the KKK Rick Bowers brings us the story of how the hero not only fought this villain in the fictional series, but also in real life.

Here's Rick with the Becks natural Superman character was created by two Jewish kids in Cleveland in the 1930s, and these two kids were high school students.

They love science fiction. They will hold up in their attic studio reading science fiction magazines, books, go to the movies caped heroes like Zorro great things on the big screen and they were taking all of that in and they started to create their own characters and they created the character in the story called the rating of Superman but in that first iteration Superman was bad. He was an evil scientist to record experiments on homeless men during the depression and he had no real superpowers just super evil so there were critics of interesting characters, but there was always something about that that original Superman that right so they put that on the shelf and live in today and as Superman Lord goes one night, Jerry Siegel, one of these two young men were struggling to get through the depression find work and make it in the field of comments are to we have it backwards.

What the world really needs is a good Superman and that Tiffany and the character that evolved from just as publishers in New York City were developing the first comic books in the first comic books were actually compilations of newspaper strips. Little orphan Annie Popeye and those newspaper strips would be put in books and sold for a piece but after the supply of newspaper strips have been exhausted. These publishers needed original content in one publisher recalled this set of drawings that these kids from Cleveland set with his character called Superman and they were in a pinch to launch a comic book called action comics so they hired Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster put together 13 pages of Superman stories for the original edition of action, for anyone really knew what hundreds of thousands of those comic books have been sold and character. We all know Superman was complete exciting radio program tonight is. I created writer and producer Bob Maxwell transform Superman radio show mutual broadcasting system in your active sound effects. People would create a radio program three times a week were super man took on that side crime gangs evil spectral beings. It became a hit, so Superman was now comic books. He was a stripper newspaper. He was a serial in the movie theaters and he was reaching for million households three times a week through the ring as World War II comes the creators use him more as a weapon against America's enemies. So he's taking on Nazi spy use, taking on German generals and in one case he actually took on Hitler and grabbed him by the scruff and carriage, and carried him off to international tribunal to be tried for workrooms so Superman has become a meaningful character in certain ways and as the war ended, and as times changed the radio program asked a very perplexing question what we do now. It seemed like the crime bosses and even scientists have run their course. War was over.

So if there was no longer a target, but there was something happening here at home that got their attention.

The Ku Klux Klan was attempting a revival 6 million Jews had just been killed in Nazi concentration, and here we have people in our own backyard work preaching a similar philosophy and who believe that this postwar era and belong to them that we can bring their clans philosophy and we can create an organization with millions of members so these two forces are very different. One is a fictional character on the radio in comic books and one is an actual real-world organization that is actually carrying out atrocious acts against its enemies who would know that one day they would collide well. All this was happening young men in Stetson Kennedy was growing up in Jacksonville, Florida. Even at the age of 12 he was extremely uncomfortable with the first and pervasive racism through the streets of Jacksonville Klansmen March some on horseback, dressed in robes and at first he thought that the club for grown-ups to dress up in costumes every day of the year that this was actually here: which means they impose their will on black citizens and it was when African-Americans made in their house was attacked by the client for answering back refused to give the proper change. She was brought home bloodied and the real plan is all about, and this young man sleeping out of step with much of the time decided at that point that his life fighting and we been listening to Rick Bowers is the author of Superman versus the complex plan. The true story of how the iconic superhero battle the men of faith. When we come back more of this remarkable story on L Americans.

Millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year and United healthcare can help you feel confident about your choices for those eligible Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15 through December 7. If you're working past age 65.

You might be able to delay Medicare enrollment. Depending on your employer coverage. It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be this UHC Medicare health plan's.com to learn more United healthcare helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop for small business insurance.

I need my State Farm agent make sure my business days piping hot and I think cool and confident. The small business owners to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on like a good neighbor. There call your local State Farm agent for quote today doing household chores can Artie be time-consuming and tedious. There's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done can be overwhelming for anyone. If you want to get those larger laundry loads done right and get back to your life. Try all three clear maggot packs all three clear mega packs are bigger packs two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry all three clear mega packs are also 100% free perfumes and dyes and gentle on skin, which is great for any family sensitive skin needs my family. We definitely have sensitive skin. The next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is.

That's because this big pile of dirty clothes. All three clear maggot packs have your back purchase all three clear mega packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types and were back with our American stories and the story Superman versus the KKK is this organization group was one real life superhero looking stop them. Stetson Kennedy let's get back to Rick Bowers with the rest of the store in 1937 Stetson Kennedy became an interview with Florida's writers project which was a new deal program for unemployed writers, editors, researchers, historians, and they were traveling the state collecting life stories tall tales folksongs and fables from common people, but he would record folksong blues singers he would record stories from field hands sharecroppers and he started to understand that the stories songs. These rituals and values were what held people together. It held culture together and so in his mind. This was a great insight and he came to see that by having this information himself much better writer communicator and he could tell the stories of the common people and inform others of their plights.

So for Stetson candy. It was the injustice that was being inflicted on these poor people. It was racism that was directed at these African-American sharecroppers fishing and it just hit him at such a level that he dedicated himself to trying to fix it, and he was working at the time for an organization called the antidefamation and the IP defamation league's organization that opposes prejudice against Jewish people and fights for the rights of all people, and they hired him as an infiltrator to get inside the client. The dangers were very real. 1946 the clan is reviving in Atlanta, Georgia and Stetson through his research knows this.

He knows that this organization with a long history of violence is try to make come back and it's all happening in what they called the Imperial city of Atlanta, Georgia so he moved to Atlanta Georgia with the express purpose of infiltrating the client so Stetson through the ADL takes on a false persona. He takes on the persona of John Kirk, a encyclopedia salesman and the publisher of a hate sheet. He begins hanging around with Klansmen talking their language, he begins attending their meetings and everything he discovers his file back to the antidefamation league in the form of a spy report and his reporting on some of the atrocities at the time that are just so that you know they shifted to the core to black couples driving down the road outside Atlanta in the year 1946 dragged from their car taken to a riverbed and shot it a black taxi driver in who was seen rightful white woman is dragged from his car and killed inside the clan, Stetson would write reports about their plans to the government armory sees weapons and orchestrate an all-out attack on black communities and Stetson is in the middle of this entire time he was walking this fine line where one wrong step probably meant that's and also risk writing columns and are soon exposing the KKK hierarchy, custom traditions, most notably their brutality. Meanwhile, as we learned earlier, Superman radio show creator, start a new type of villain based on real life people waking their audience to the evil in their own lives there villain would be the KKK or in their 16 part series known as the clan of the fire recross. They worked with the ADL and used much of Stetson spine to strip the clan seeking attraction by reviewing what they're actually like behind so to 16 episodes. This arc takes place.

People are people are threatened Clark to Lois Lane have to put a special edition of the daily planet to let the public know that this client group is in people and course Superman is to take flight and round up these Klansmen will notice that the wind picked up, as if you look closely at the rituals language that they use where everything starts with K so the big clan gathering is a clown vocation. This was language can be made fun. These gifts of the Celtics that these people where all row states hoods over their heads, little slits for goals look like clowns look like kids and we dressed up as ghosts. So he felt that that was a great way to undercut the client opening long below with you Rick, but followed by Chucky of the newly strangely company great America America 100% American race relations and, one only one what will the kids.

It was very revolutionary for its time. In the end he was extremely successful. The media portrays the Colombian was extraordinary industry groups hailed Superman as a hero for tolerance education groups now see that these characters can play a positive role newspapers lauded Terry articles some of them saying that this is great for kids but make their parents should listen to it as well.

There are stories that come from actual Klansmen tell the story of how their kids would listen to that show acted out. So one kid Superman, the other one pillowcase over their head and rap sheet around themselves and then Superman would grab the what she should drag him off to jail Klansmen watching so they became very infuriating what the show was doing and they felt that the ridicule of the world where millions of people are listening to this and they think were a bunch of food plan was humiliated. This villains infamy is a lot in the 1920s.

During the clan's PQ had 4 million members nationwide today only 3000 thanks in part Superman character read by two boys, Cleveland, Ohio real life perched expose a villain in his own backyard and great work as always, to Joey Cortez. A special thanks to Rick Bowers for sharing the story and while there's not much to add the story of Superman versus the KKK here on L