Recently there has been a growing collection of people who insist that while systemic racism may be a problem, blatant acts of discrimination based on someone’s skin color are a thing of the past.
Colorado heating and cooling company, Mile High Heating and Cooling, would beg to differ.
A Fox affiliate in the Denver region received tips about a company in Westminster that actually refused service to people in a particular ZIP code because of its racially diverse population.
Rather than bombard the company with accusations from anonymous tipsters, the Fox31 “Problem Solvers” team sent a producer in to apply for a job as an “appointment setter” and work undercover to catch the company in the act.
It wasn’t long before the undercover investigation officially launched and a troubling conversation with one of the managers was captured on tape.
While training the new employee, a manager, referred to on camera as Andrea, was showing the undercover producer how to cold call certain regions to get new customers.
Some ZIP codes were to be heavily concentrated on while others, not so much.
One, however, was to be avoided entirely.
“We call it Mount Ghetto,” Andrea said of the ZIP code that was labeled “do not call.”
She continued to say the company avoids Montebello because it is a “colored neighborhood.”
It’s troubling enough to imagine that the company wouldn’t want to reach out to communities of all backgrounds but labeling it with a racially charged title like “Mount Ghetto” and referring to it as a “colored neighborhood” was enough to leave the entire Problem Solvers team startled.
Unfortunately, the investigation’s most troubling findings were yet to come.
The training session only proved that the company didn’t reach out to residents in the area. It didn’t suggest that it denied service to the area altogether.
So Problem Solvers teamed up with a local woman, Pam Jiner, from the area and had her call in to ask for help with a broken furnace.
After she provided the company with her ZIP code, however, her chances of getting any service were obliterated.
An employee promised to call Jiner back with more details, but the call never came.
Shortly afterwards, the investigative team had another resident call in with a different ZIP code, and that appointment was booked with the dispatcher immediately.
Jiner was visibly troubled by the different treatment and called it exactly what it was — “blatant racism.”
One of Jiner’s neighbors, Duane Topping, said he was shocked that the company viewed the neighborhood’s diversity as a problem rather than something positive.
“Those stereotypes are born of ignorance,” he told Fox31 Denver of the company’s reference to the community as “ghetto.” “I’ve grown up with all of these people in this neighborhood, so this is a family. We don’t care how much money you make; we don’t care what color you are; we don’t care what religion you are.”
But apparently Mile High Heating and Cooling cared. The company cared enough to turn down potential revenue from a neighborhood with “colored” residents.
With more than enough evidence captured on hidden cameras to confront the company, the reporters did just that but received nothing but silence as an answer.
They arrived at the company in full media regalia to ask the manager, Andrea, some questions, but she retreated into her office and closed the door.
She emerged an hour later to a bombardment of questions.
“When you refer to colored people, what color are you referring to,” reporters asked.
Andrea answered with silence as the team followed up with other questions about whether or not she was a racist.
With the manager remaining tight-lipped about the matter, they approached Kasey Dykman, who co-owns the company along with his father.
He, too, answered their inquiries with nothing but silence as he went into a Starbucks to meet up with his father, who, to no surprise, also refused to answer any questions.
Residents have been encouraged to file complaints with the Colorado Civil Rights Division, and a protest against the company took place Thursday.
