I had very good parents. My mother came to this country from Scotland by herself when she was 11, and she didn't have much of an education. My dad was kind of a street kid, and he eventually went into the insurance business, selling nickel policies (五分钱保险单） door-to-door. It was the 1930s, a time when America was a lot more racist (种族主义的） than it is now.
One day, my dad asked his boss, “What's the toughest market to sell?” and the insurance guy replied , “Well, black people. They don't buy insurance.” My dad thought: but they have kids; they have families. Why wouldn't they buy insurance? So he said, “Give me Harlem.” He went to Harlem and sold nickel policies there; every Friday, he would go around and collect the nickel and give his customers a receipt on the policy.
