THE NAVY WAY*

       A US Navy cruiser anchored in Mississippi for a week's shore leave.

       The first evening, the ship's Captain received the following
  note from the wife of a very wealthy and influential plantation owner:
       "Dear Captain, Thursday will be my daughter Melinda's Debutante Ball.
  I would like you to send four well-mannered, handsome, unmarried
  officers in their formal dress uniforms to attend the dance. They should arrive promptly at 8:00 PM      prepared for an evening of polite Southern conversation. They should be excellent dancers, as
  they will be the escorts of lovely refined young ladies. One last
  point: No Jews please."

       Sending a written message by his own yeoman, the captain replied:
  "Madam, thank you for your invitation. In order to present the widest
  possible knowledge base for polite conversation, I am sending four of
  my best and most prized officers.
       "One is a lieutenant commander, and a graduate of Annapolis with an
  additional Master’s degree from MIT in fluid technologies and ship
  design.
      "The second is a Lieutenant, one of our helicopter pilots, and a
  graduate of Northwestern University in Chicago , with a BS in
  Aeronautical Engineering. His Master’s Degree and PhD. In Aeronautical
  and Mechanical Engineering are from Texas Tech University and he is
  also an astronaut candidate.
       "The third officer is also a lieutenant, with degrees in both computer
  systems and information technology from SMU and he is awaiting
  notification on his Doctoral Dissertation from Cal Tech.
       "Finally, the fourth officer, also a lieutenant commander, is our
  ship's doctor, with an undergraduate degree from the University of
  Georgia and his medical degree is from the University of North
  Carolina . We are very proud of him, as he is also a senior fellow in
  Trauma Surgery at Bethesda ."

       Upon receiving this letter, Melinda's mother was quite excited and
  looked forward to Thursday with pleasure. Her daughter would be
  escorted by four handsome naval officers without peer (and the other
  women in her social circle would be insanely jealous).

        At precisely 8:00 PM on Thursday, Melinda's mother heard a polite rap
  at the door which she opened to find, in full dress uniform, four very
  handsome, smiling Black officers.
        Her mouth fell open, but pulling herself together, she stammered,
  "There must be some mistake."
       "No, Madam," said the first officer. "Captain Goldberg never makes mistakes."

     (This was forwarded to me without origination credit. But I think it needs to be more widely printed and read and I suspect the writer who penned it will approve (since this blog is not commercialized by accepting crass filthy lucre).