Of the Idea for Integration is a Bitch
A lot of people ask me where the idea for the book Integration is a Bitch came from. Quite frankly, the book was not born so much of an idea, as it was of a need—the need to find a way to keep my sanity in the midst of the daily aggravations I faced as the only Black white-collar employee at the steel mill I worked at after graduating from college. (Ah, college… My experiences at college should form the content of another entry, another time…) Anyway, the book came to being as a result of necessity. Sketching the characters and writing the book really helped me to keep my sanity in those days.
I made a decision to document the crazy things that happened to me at the steel mill, using an art form that I was very familiar with. Part of me also felt that this might help other people embarking into industry. So I started drawing. Whenever someone said something ridiculous (or, in many cases, outright outrageous) to me, I would draw a sketch. I remember a secretary once said to me, “Tom, can I use your knife?” Believe it or not, she assumed I carried a knife!
So, it is the accumulation of my experiences as the only Black person in a White-dominated white-collar work environment, represented in the cartoon art form, which we now have as the book, Integration is a Bitch.