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How I Brought California Diversity to Georgia Business
douglas hauptman • May 24, 2023
Born in California
I was born at Vandenburg Airforce Base in Lompoc, Santa Cruz County, California. My parents lived in Los Angeles for a while before moving the new family to the San Francisco Bay Area. My formidable years in Oakland gave me close exposure with UC Berkeley and San Francisco, both were arguably the center of the Cultural Revolution of the 60’s and 70’s.
My parents were part of the first generation to break away from the old school “father knows best” mentality. They instead adopted a socially liberal lifestyle and they fit the image of the pot smoking, drinking, leather wearing, incense burning, earthy people of the area at that time. It started with love and peace but later turned to sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. For all its faults, this was a generation where people of all races and cultures aspired to live together as one in love, peace, and freedom.
I was born at Vandenburg Airforce Base in Lompoc, Santa Cruz County, California. My parents lived in Los Angeles for a while before moving the new family to the San Francisco Bay Area. My formidable years in Oakland gave me close exposure with UC Berkeley and San Francisco, both were arguably the center of the Cultural Revolution of the 60’s and 70’s.
My parents were part of the first generation to break away from the old school “father knows best” mentality. They instead adopted a socially liberal lifestyle and they fit the image of the pot smoking, drinking, leather wearing, incense burning, earthy people of the area at that time. It started with love and peace but later turned to sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. For all its faults, this was a generation where people of all races and cultures aspired to live together as one in love, peace, and freedom.
Colorblind in Oakland
In the late 60s San Francisco Bay Area, my parents exercised very open race relations such that I was raised to be colorblind. My parents, who would be divorced and remarried, intermittently dated and cohabitated with people of different races. They also had friends of all different races and cultures, so they never put much attention to skin color. My parents gave us the teachings of MLK, and as a result, I look at a person’s heart and only their heart. Up until 1999, I truly felt the country was going in a good direction and that soon racism would be entirely exterminated.
Although my parents were always partying, I was born naturally smart and was lucky in school. I was never the smartest but my education was exceptional because of the merit system. There was no diversity quota. If I had not been bused or gone to school in the bay area, I know I would not be as successful and experienced as I am today.
When I started elementary school in the late 60s, Proposition 13 was in full swing and gaining steam in the Bay area. The proposition was still controversial in some parts of the U.S. but it was mostly accepted there. In today’s world, politicians like Biden-Harris continue to advocate against this merit based system. To better explain the benefits of this proposition, I will discuss my experience being bused to Lakeview Elementary, which was located many miles away from the Skyline area of Oakland where we lived at the time.
In the original proposition, a program was designed to rank all children based solely off of test scores which were determined by IQ testing. This was called the Mentally Gifted Program
(MGF). The top scoring children were placed in classrooms with curriculums that were designed specifically for their high IQ.
The cutoff IQ score to join the MGF was 130. To put this into perspective, Steve Jobs has a score of 160 and Albert Einstein scored between 160-190, although news articles mostly reported Einstein at 160. Any score of 135 or higher is placed in the top 1%, or in other words, the 99th percentile of the population. My IQ was 134 at the time and hopefully still is!
The advanced classes put in place by the Mentally Gifted Program only made up 0.3% of the total student body and the brightest and smartest students could be found within them. At Lakeview Elementary only one of these advanced classes existed within the school. This happened to be Mrs. Shapiro’s 6th grade classroom, where I was enrolled.
Hard Work Has No Color
At the time, the demographic of Oakland was approximately 95% African American, 3% Caucasian, and the rest were Asian American and Hispanics. When looking at these demographic percentages, most would assume that the majority of my classmates were African Americans, however they were not. As you can see in my classroom photograph, most of my fellow classmates were Asian Americans but there was a wide range of Caucasian, Hispanic, and African American students too. Consider all the factors above, and you can see that race and genetics had absolutely nothing to do with classroom merit.
Asian American children made up much of the advanced classroom, despite their low demographics percentage, because their families valued education and had high expectations for grades and hard work. They encouraged their children to succeed in every way possible and this determination was ingrained within the Asian culture at the time.
On the other hand, although African Americans made up 95% of the demographics, they did not make up the majority of advanced classrooms. This had nothing to do with their abilities and everything to do, again, with culture and family. African American children who wanted to succeed in their education were often singled out with harassment, bullying, and shame. Some of this abuse even came from within their own families. This tragedy still exists today and can be seen when the data and statistics are analyzed objectively.
Even with the factors of race and genetics left out, the advanced classroom at Lakeview was still completely multicultural. My classmates and I developed amazing bonds with one another and I cannot say there is a finer group of people anywhere. In the photo below, you can see one student with an afro. His name was Rodger and we were best friends. Other classmates even nicknamed us “Oreo cookie” because, well you can figure this one out!
My elementary school held quite a few reunions over the years but I haven’t made it to one yet. The majority of my classmates lived on to have successful careers and not one of them became a socialist as far as I know. Race was never the focal point yet we all experienced equality and earned success in the end. I grew up in a diverse environment, and even 50 years later, I think of all of them fondly. Politicians these days have no idea what it means to grow up culturally diverse and what equality truly means in America.
Today’s Classrooms
Today, we can see new quota systems put in place at schools that ensure diversity, but not success and hard work. The issue at hand is that students are placed simply by their race and not their productivity. The result is students only progress because of their demographic and not because they earned it above others. Instead of placing children solely based off skin color, we should have focused on the factors that are preventing students of all colors from succeeding.
The cultural factors, which I mentioned above, consist of strong families and their determination to put education first. The narrative of politicians, such as Biden-Harris, is that classrooms would be largely Caucasian if a merit system existed. However, stories like mine demonstrate that a merit based classroom will still be largely diverse regardless of the demographics of the area.
Today, Asian Americans continue to rank at the top of education and these students also have the highest rate of two parent households. Family, acceptance, and educational standards are what will ensure the next generation is successful. From hard work, and not skin color, will the most positive outcomes be achieved.
Another good read is The Diversity Delusion by Heather MacDonald.
After sixth grade, the Mentally Gifted Program experiment was finished because Proposition 13, at the time, only allowed for these types of sophisticated and advanced education tactics within the sixth grade. This was truly a shame because it was absolutely very successful. How many sixth-grade elementary school classes do you know that still hold reunions? Nevertheless, busing continued. I was first bused to Bret Harte Junior High School and later to McChesney Junior High School. Both schools were located in tough parts of town and far from my home.
Mayhem, Mischief, and Lessons Learned
What happened next was traumatic for me. There is no way around it, I admit that I had become a gang banger and it was the peer pressure that got me to that point. I experienced significant racism as a young white boy which resulted in me getting daily beatings, harassment, and falling victim to crimes throughout the beginning of my 7th grade year. People also stole money from me and I was even sexually assaulted at one point. It wasn’t long until I was eventually beat into a gang.
I coped with this by learning how to fight, becoming a fast runner, and settling in with a group that was not accepted by mainstream gangs at the time. Strength was found in numbers and my gang included a couple white guys, a couple Asian guys, four black guys, and one Hispanic. We hung out together mostly for protection, but we also developed a strong bond and got into all sorts of mischief. This included, but was not limited to, stealing old people’s Social Security money after payday, ripping off liquor stores, and other misdemeanors and general mayhem.
I think it's important to say that I am not proud of this part of my life, and I am certain that I developed PTSD because of the beatings and the things that I witnessed, some of which were so gruesome that I will not put them to ink here.
Suffice it to say that when God has his hands on you and things get to be their very worst, he can do miracles. This is what He did for me. If I had stayed there, I am certain that I would have ended up dead or in prison, or probably both.
Pony Boy in San Diego
When I turned 16 years old, my family moved to San Diego where things were much different. The people there were significantly more divided than back in my hometown of Oakland. Instead of predominantly African American students, at Monte Vista High School in Spring Valley CA, there were mostly Caucasian and Hispanic students with few African Americans. Since I was accustomed to Oakland and most of my actual friends were mainly Black and Asian, I had a difficult time befriending other people.
I remember reading The Outsiders in the 7th grade because I identified with the greasers in the story. I did not care for who I thought to be the socs
in school and instead joined in with the Hispanics and dated women from all sorts of cultural backgrounds. I also made use of the fighting I learned from Oakland gangs because, as a white guy dating mainly Hispanic girls, I found myself attracting conflict. However, this never stopped me from dating who I wanted to. Needless to say, I was out of place and experienced some social shock in my new environment.
I played a variety of sports but still I maintained the label of a stoner. However, the football head coach didn’t let me play football mainly because of this reputation even though I was the fastest and best wide receiver there. I was denied the positive social experience I would have almost certainly enjoyed had I played football.
Then my life took another turn for the worse as my parents ended up divorcing once and for all. My father had an affair with the mother of one of my fellow classmates and this lead to a bloody fight between us. I ended up sitting in a pool of blood with all of my things packed into my Toyota truck. He took the house keys and that was when I came to the realization that I was officially on my own. This was 1978 and at the tender age of 17, I was all alone in the world.
Never one to quit or give up, I struggled to put myself back in school again and ended up withdrawing to pursue my GED during my senior year. I was unable to finish my diploma because I was busy trying to find a job and pay my own rent. I did however pass the GED and have a high school equivalency certificate.
After finally getting my first apartment, things began to settle down for a little while. I enrolled myself at Grossmont Community College and eventually completed 2.5 years of education while living on my own. I had left right before I was about to complete an associate’s degree in business administration and a minor in psychology, with additional emphasis on political science. During this time, while I was attempting to earn the degree, I had to sleep in my van on occasion, finding myself homeless between various sales jobs, until landing my first good sales job at 19 years old.
Flying High in Orange County
By 1980, I took my new skill set and moved to Orange County. I was hired on at Centon Electronics selling semi-conductors. I made even more money at this endeavor, soaring into the millions. At this time, I was flying high as a highly paid sales executive, living in Newport Beach, riding in limos, and buying copious amounts of cocaine and concert tickets. I had no idea how to function in the real world yet, but I was exceptional at selling things and this led to some great opportunities as well as some really big temptations.
I was caught in the perfect storm of success driven by a deep desire to never be homeless again and some deep-rooted psychological issues from my gang banger days in Oakland. I suspect that most of my dysfunction during this time period was from the PTSD I suffered and I still suffer from it to this very day after having survived the ordeal.
I thought that I had everything I wanted but could not avoid the feeling that something was missing. I dated beautiful women, including a top billing stripper at the Cheetah Men’s Club in Orange County. I met up with her along the highway one day in my Vette. She sped by me in a beefed up Firebird and we raced along until I motioned her to pull into a rest area and you might imagine the rest. My life was a nonstop party but no amount of cocaine or beautiful women could fulfill the gaping hole I felt deep within my spirit.
By 1985, my Corvette led me to befriending the auto detailer, a man named Carey, at the car wash on Beach & Warner in Huntington Beach. He in turn led me to Jesus and this led to the start of my born-again transformation. I started to attend Calvary Church in Costa Mesa, where Chuck Smith was the head pastor, where much of the evangelical movement started. Great evangelists such as Greg Laurie and Raul Ries, to name just a couple, were part of the Calvary movement.
Raul Ries, then Pastor of Calvary in Rowland Heights, CA, is the author of From Fury to Freedom, which I highly suggest everyone read. This book, also made into a movie, tells a story that is unforgettable and life changing for the reader. Raul’s name stands for fear, for fighting, and for fury. In his childhood, his classmates referred to him as violent and rebellious and his family labeled him a “time bomb” ready to explode at any time. This was a notion that I would soon come to experience myself in the near future. In Vietnam, those who fought by his side claimed that he was an “angry, bitter killer”.
As time went on, Raul developed into a violent martial arts hoodlum who eventually found himself at the end of a very long road. Raul put a shotgun to his head with the full intention of pulling the trigger and ending his life for good. However, right in that moment, a sermon from Chuck Smith began to play on the TV. Chuck’s invitation to accept the Lord released Raul’s finger from the trigger and started him down an entirely new path, a path that would save his life and put him on a new journey with God’s protection and guidance.
Baptized in the Pacific Ocean
By 1987 like Raul Ries had before me, I was heading down the road to perdition. One afternoon, I took my head turning Corvette and jumped onto the highway for an appointment in Los Angeles. I was speeding at 120 mph and I was listening to a sermon on the Christian radio station KWAV. The sermon was about accepting Jesus and asking Him for signs. Pastor Chuck, as we called him, went on to teach that if you are seeking the Lord and you know the Lord is calling you, yet you cannot seem to wrap your head around it, then it’s okay to ask for a sign. I soon came to find out, a sign was about to sweep right through my existence.
As I was racing down the highway just past Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, high on cocaine, Jesus sent me a sign that I could not deny. I was running late, had been partying too hard, and knew right then and there that my life was on a collision course. I felt hopeless and even helpless. In that moment, I heard Pastor Chuck say “if you are lost and just need a sign, just ask for it, He will show you the way.” So I said out loud, “Dear Lord, I really need you right now, please show me you are real, please show me a sign.”
At that very instant is when I saw a semi-truck blow a tire on the highway just a quarter mile ahead. I saw the cab drop, and jack knife oncoming traffic. I immediately thought that the situation was very bad, and my adrenaline went sky high. The semi started smoking, the tires were ripping up, and cars were dodging it left and right. This life-threatening crash was like a scene from Fast & Furious because I drove straight through it without slowing down. I really had no time to react or do anything, it happened so fast!
How did I drive right through this without getting blown up or killed? It was so dramatic that I thought I might have hallucinated the entire situation. Then it dawned on me that I had just asked for a sign, and if ever there was a sign, this had to be it! This was my moment of conversion. I knew right then and there that God and Jesus were real and nothing could possibly convince me otherwise.
Following this realization, I started to regularly attend church and was baptized at Dana Point in the Pacific Ocean just 3 months later. I made the choice to dry up, get off of drugs and put an end to my party lifestyle. It didn’t happen overnight but took many years for me to get sober. My entire perspective changed for the better after I found Christ and was validated by my near death experience on highway 5 just past Oceanside.
Corruption, Yuppies, and My Exit
Today, I am grateful for growing up in California because I would not be who I am today without my experiences. As I continued to sober up and make changes to my lifestyle, I also saw changes happening within the golden state. California was becoming less and less culturally rich and more centered around money and fame. Everyone started wanting to look good and have their pockets full. People wanted to become celebrities and paid attention to where they ate, how much money they made, and how well dressed they could be. This superficial trend is what led to the term “yuppies”. A yuppy was most likely a southern Californian who was shallow and rich, focused only on materialistic values. I knew in my heart that this wasn’t the place for me anymore but it wouldn’t be until another journey through the riches that I decided to up and go.
I started working in internet consultation at US Web as a lead business analyst and while the income was great, my eyes were opened to just how corrupt the corporate world of California really was. I once went to a meeting in Irvine with AOL’s project management team and discovered that the data centers were located mostly in residential houses, not data centers, and CDs were transferred in the mail. I knew then that they were cooking the books because there was no way that the business model they were running could ever be sustainable nor profitable. I ended up leaving US Web because they, among many other tech and financial firm of that day, aided and abetted AOL in what would later be the catalyst of the dot com bubble and subsequent crash on 2000-2001. They lied about their actual profits to cover up that they were losing copious amount of money. They did all of the advertising and in 1999 they held a public offering to raise their stock so high that they could leverage the hostile takeover of Time Warner. In 2001, an investigation actually proved that they had lied about 5 billion dollars in losses! The write down illegally treated the sky high marketing costs as a long term asset on the books! Without this money, they would have never been able to buy Time Warner.
By 1999, I was officially born again and no longer just a sellout. My prospects were much lower because I refused to conform to the corruption and superficial environment. I was disillusioned, divorced, lonely, and knew I needed to keep making changes.
Soon enough, I was given another sign. My mother called me from Georgia and asked me to come help my grandmother who was not physically well at the time. She could hardly get to the bathroom and insurance was not helping in the slightest. This was my sign to move. On August 12th, 1999 I officially left California and my new journey was about to begin in Georgia!
Making Roots in Georgia
I remember the day I left California as if it happened yesterday. I was driving a Cutlass that was on its last leg and I only had $682.91 to my name, with my credit ruined. I remember watching the temperature needle go up every time I would drive uphill and the engine steaming. I had to go 30 mph just to prevent the car from overheating on me. I realized that I was no longer flying high in my corvette and was instead bumping along the unknown. I had barely made it to Georgia but the Lord got me there safely.
Although the trip was challenging, I know this was one of the best choices I could have made. When I got to Georgia, I had already acquired skills in business and was ready to put them to use. The benefit was that Georgia had much less competition than California. I started coding HTML and within two years I was making over $500.00 per day. Despite making good money, the first year was really challenging. I lived with my mother and aunt at the time and had a side job as a salesperson for Phil Meek. To my surprise, most of my clients acquired in California stuck with me, even from a distance. Life was finally going in the direction I had always wanted but this time it had meaning, the factor missing from my California memories.
From that point in time until now, I have been steadily building a family and multiple businesses. There have been challenges, but it has been a great time. My experiences in California shaped the husband, father, and businessman I am today.
Recently, my youngest daughter Mali left for college, and it brought up a lot of feelings within me. She told me she was scared to leave because she had lived in our house her entire life. This reminded me that I grew up without roots or stability. If I had never left California, I most likely would have never put down roots for a family either. The change of environment allowed me to make a stable lifestyle and raise a family. I thank the Lord for this blessing.
Gratitude and Equality
Today, I am grateful for both my journey in California and my landing in Georgia. I used the knowledge I gained in Cali to create something new and unifying in Atlanta. It really saddened me to see the community here divided over class and race. People segregated themselves at church and even where they shopped and hung out. I wasn’t used to seeing this after living so long in Cali with diversity in every direction. I realized that prejudice and racism was indeed alive and well right in front of me.
I decided to incorporate my California experiences here in Georgia by advocating for diversity within my own business and demonstrating that people of all ethnicities can work together to create a unified community. Currently, all my tenants at Mimosa Salon Suites are African American. I successfully made the first salon suites business in Georgia and I am proud to be with people of all colors working hand in hand. The majority of our social media embraces diversity and strives to get the message of unity across to the public. I went against the grain of the culture here and brought my 60s California energy into the mix.
I became the complete opposite of what I was in California and devoted my career to social justice by way of entrepreneurship. But even in my new ventures, I thank the Lord for the journey he put me on and all that I learned as a result.
Reflecting on My Journey
When I look back on my journey, I reflect on exactly what it means to have roots versus living without them. I realized that you can always travel and experience new environments but you only get one shot to establish roots. If you establish roots first, then you will always have a home base to return to. If you are thinking about starting over, then most likely you have hit rock bottom in life and that’s ok. You have nowhere to go but up and it’s never too late to create a foundation for change.
One person I especially look up to and relate to is Elon Musk. He moved his entire business to Texas, not because he had to, but because he wanted to. It was personal to him, just as it was for me. He refused to remain in California, surrounded by corruption and greed. One quote that I can relate to is:
“Some people don't like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster.”
Remember to stay open to new opportunities that come your way and look for healthy ways to live. Find your purpose, establish a mission, and move forward. And don’t forget to always look for signs from the Lord because He will always point you in the right direction when you feel lost.
Additional Information:
Insight on bussing and merit based schooling: https://www.thefreevoter.com/insights-busing
Finding your life purpose: https://www.doughauptman.com/working-for-your-life-purpose
Coach Doug's Blog
Turn Our Greif into Action Never forget 9/11. Never let the children forget. Whatever you think, if it was the enemy from within or the evil from outside, thousands died. But even as we remember the victims and honor the heroes of that terrible day, we should always remain constant with love and love defends those who need protection. Follow Your Heart Today, the world needs the protection that only comes from love. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your enemy and pray for him that he might turn from his evil ways but in all things fight. Fight for what you know in your heart is right. Fight for freedom. Fight to protect the children from the sickness and confusion that will cause their harm. Know What Your Are Fighting For Fight for your right to live free and protect your family. At the end of your life, don't have this regret, that you did nothing to stop the evils of Communism & Marxism, that's all there is to it. For the Love of God, Family & Country! Fight! Fight! Fight!
We Are God’s Children Children are born innocent and unconditionally lovable. No matter what choices or actions a child displays, we are to love them without harsh judgement. As we turn into adults, we become accountable for our actions and our behavior directly effects how others perceive us. This leads to contrast throughout mankind and we begin to develop friends versus enemies. However, deeming people unlovable and deciphering to have enemies has absolutely no benefit to your life. The best way to remember that hate has no place in our hearts, is to turn to God. All adults are forever God’s children. God has unconditional love for all and studying his word can greatly encourage forgiveness and acceptance of others into your daily life. Let’s reflect. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8 Although we sinned, Christ still died for us. This action alone should help us understand that enemies do not exist outside our own perception and judgement. All are worthy of love and all are lovable. Loving those who are difficult to love, is extending our love received from Christ. It Feels Good to Love Take a moment and reflect on a scenario when you said something terrible or acted in a way that you later regretted. Now think about how those around you offered forgiveness and how that forgiveness felt. It’s likely that you felt relieved and changed how you handled similar situations in the future. Forgiveness is a form of love. Forgiving someone can feel equally liberating as being forgiven. When you hold a grudge, it doesn’t feel good and invites anxiety and anger into your life. While you may think that this grudge is teaching the person at hand a lesson, it is not. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Holding anger for someone is giving them control over your feelings and, in some scenarios, your life. When you release the hate, you can begin to think and act with your heart instead of your ego. The picture may become clearer as you start to perceive situations with compassion and forgiveness becomes effortless. “ You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” – Matthew 5:38-4 2 By forgiving and welcoming in only words and actions of love, you gain back that control. If someone treats us badly, we are allowed to feel hurt, but it is never a reason to hurt them back. The cliché saying , “two wrongs don’t make a right” holds true in this case. When we love others unconditionally, we become proof of God’s word, as we become the vessel for the extension of this love. Love From a Distance “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” – Luke 6:27-28 Loving others does not always mean we need to be physically present in that person’s life. Even at a distance, we can still project love! Praying is a great way to love others who we may not be ready to physically be around. Many people act in harmful ways because they are hurt deep inside. Anger is a secondary emotion to sadness. Someone who treats others badly was likely treated badly themselves, hence where they learned such behavior. Pray for their healing, happiness, and forgiveness. We can also practice speaking positively about those we dislike. Gossip is the language of the ego, and doing so brings nothing but negativity into our lives. Gossip is passing judgment without allowing the other person to defend themselves. It only feeds our ego into believing our reaction to the situation was justified. This does not solve anything and can make us look untrustworthy to those we are gossiping to. We should speak kindly of our enemies and stay present. All Are Lovable In conclusion, all living creatures are lovable and a creation of God. The ability to love is the primary evidence of Christ living through us. We are all prone to making mistakes and likewise, we can all make changes. This is what growth looks like and we must be loved in order to have an inspiration and desire for such growth. Next time you are feeling like a person in your life is unlovable, turn to God. Pray for them as he does for us and wish abundance and happiness for all. By doing this, we can feel less angry and use our energy into creating good.
