At 21, I was attending USC and promoting some of the hot nightclubs in Hollywood that catered to the A-list celebrity crowd and the beautiful nobodies who desired to be in their presence. As I've mentioned, normally I'm not one to notice racism, but in that environment it was so blatant. My job as a promoter was to pack the venues with as many beautiful girls as possible and to bring in the celebs to give the clubs that all-important "buzz" factor. Where racism came into play was at the velvet rope. An unspoken understanding among promoters and doorguys was that minorities (Asians, blacks and Latinos) were persona non grata-undesired elements.

It's the death nail for a club if it regularly packs in too many minorities because that would scare off the Caucasian crowd. Our job as promoters was to put only beautiful people on our guest list and to ensure that minorities and unattractive people were left off. Unfortunately, in this sense, being a minority and being unattractive were synonymous-one and the same. Doorguys acted as the last line of defense for this racist door policy. They were paid to perfect the art of turning away "the undesirables" with grace and tact. If you've ever been to one of these Hollywood hotspots, you know that there's no such thing as an orderly line or first come, first served. There's just a big mob of people crowding the entrance. The clubs and promoters do this on purpose so that they can pick and choose who gets to enter. The undesirables were made to wait ridiculous lengths of time to discourage them from coming back. Then the doorguys would tell them, "Sorry, we're at capacity. Please come back another time." But then he'd turn around and let a Caucasian girl in. If you were a minority girl, you'd have to be "extra" beautiful to gain entrance, and for minority guys it was near impossible.

Witnessing that scenario play out week after week at our clubs was the catalyst that opened my eyes to racial bigotry for the first time. I was young then and, regrettably, never stood up against it. I guess that's partly why I'm so determined to speak out now. That situation got me to realize that there exists such a thing as a "glass wall" within society. We've all heard about the invisible "glass ceiling" that keeps minorities and women from reaching the top. However, no one has ever spoken of the equally insidious glass wall that keeps minorities and women from attaining certain rights and privileges regardless of socioeconomic status. Just some examples: Asian women are never cast as the lead in Hollywood films, only as a supporting character or as part of an ensemble (Lucy Liu in Charlie's Angels); also in Hollywood films, Asian men are never cast as the sexy, virile leading man; and some high-profile golf courses still maintain a strict "no women" policy (Augusta National, official site of the renown Masters Tournament). These privileges, unfortunately, are walled off by an invisible glass wall built on bigotry.