Why Can't We All Get Along? Oh Yeah - One Group Has To Historically Fight Against The Odds For Everything

From the bottom to the top and from the top to the bottom:

In late August it was revealed that Merrill Lynch, one of the nation's oldest financial institutions, would settle a class action lawsuit brought by African-American employees alleging discrimination.

By settling, the firm became one of the few major players on Wall Street to acknowledge something that has been whispered about for years but has been nearly impossible to prove: that institutional racism has made it tougher for black Americans to make it to the top on Wall Street than just about anywhere else -- including the White House. Though the 2005 suit, initiated by longtime Merrill broker George McReynolds, was filed on behalf of 700 black brokers, a portion of the $160 million settlement will be available to any black broker or trainee at the firm since May 2001.