Briefly discuss the story "Equal Opportunity" by Walter Mosley.

This story focuses on a man called Socrates. He is 58 years old and has spent 27 years of his life in prison as a result of two murder charges. Now a free man, Socrates wants to find a job, but there are none available to him in his deprived neighborhood of Watts. (There isn't even a supermarket.) So Socrates travels 14 miles to apply for a job in a supermarket on Venice Boulevard.
The manager's reaction to Socrates is very negative. She says that Socrates cannot have a job because he does not have a phone (to enable him to find out if his application is successful). Socrates, however, does not give up and returns to the store four days in a row to see if his application has been successful. On the fourth day, Socrates is greeted by some security officers, called in by the manager. Eventually, Socrates is offered a job at another supermarket in Santa Monica, where ex-convicts are given a second chance.
The key to this story is the attitude of the supermarket manager. By portraying the manager in this way, Mosley draws attention to the fact that a convicted felon may have served his time, but society never truly accepts him. He will always be socially tainted by the crimes of his past.

In the short story "Equal Opportunity," Socrates Fortlow goes to a Bounty Supermarket on Venice Boulevard to find a job. He is enthralled by the wealth around him. He thinks, "There was a definite religious feel to being in the great store. The lofty ceilings, the abundance, the wealth." Socrates has served twenty-seven years hard time for killing two of his buddies. There are no supermarkets in Watts, where he lives, so he has to travel 14 miles to Venice Boulevard to ask for a job. The white manager turns him down because Socrates doesn't have a phone, and the manager claims he needs to tell applicants if they've been accepted by phone. Socrates returns for four days asking for a job, and he is told that if he returns again, he will be arrested. Instead, when he comes back, he tells the security guards that he has been treated unfairly for not having gotten a chance to prove himself. Finally, the security officers decide he should get a job at the Santa Monica store, and Socrates celebrates his success. The story is about how hard it is for an African-American ex-con to get a chance to better his life after leaving prison.