As a manager at the Xerox branch office in Syracuse, N.Y., Chester Howell supervises a staff of about 20, mainly repair technicians and clerical workers. All but two are white. Howell is black. A former copier-machine repairman who rose through an affirmative-action promotion plan, he ran into some resistance when he first assumed his higher job. There were fierce arguments with one of his white assistant managers. "He questioned every decision I made," says Howell. "He wanted to double-check everything."
But was that prejudice? "Heck, no," insists his old antagonist, Vincent + Venditti. "If Chet wasn't a minority person, the relationship...
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