RACISM IS ALIVE AND WELL IN TEXAS
I moved to Texas a few years ago already armed with a B.A. degree. I have been shocked at how difficult it has been to find even a permanent job here, even with years of experience under my belt. After working a few “contract” jobs and seeing how things are done at the companies I have worked for, I now have a clearer understanding of what’s going on.
The position i held before my most recent employer, I along with several other african americans were hired to work as “contractors”. We were told if we did a good job we would be hired permanent. Frankly the work was easy and we all put our hearts into it. We were all college educated and we wanted to make a good first impression. This was the first time i had started to notice a genuine difference in how the african americans were treated compared to the white employees. I can remember working alongside “Bryan”, a white coworker. Bryan would often leave work “when he wanted” without his work being completed or if he was angry. He would openly say “Fuck It” and the managers wouldn’t know where he was. Due to Bryan leaving without his work being completed the managers would bring his work to me to complete. Even though I was on overtime and was trying to complete my own work. This was done time and time again. Bryan was eventually promoted. The Good Ol’boy system was hard at work.
During this time it became apparent company management was clearly favoring the white employees over those that were non white. It had started to be whispered that several of my white coworkers had suddenly been made permanent. Not one african american was in this number. These individuals were suddenly getting holiday pay and insurance and all of the perks that came with the job. Why was it being whispered about? I approached a close acquaintance I will refer to as “Kelly” and I asked her if she had just suddenly been made permanent. She nodded her head yes. I congratulated her. However, three of us (the black employees) had been employees of the month repeatedly. We had worked extremely hard. Even before becoming permanent Kelly had been allowed to take multiple vacations to visit family when we could not miss any days (even though we had a perfect attendance). Those other african american employees who had missed days with perfectly legitimate excuses were automatically fired or written up. They couldn’t dare leave work early (which was a terminable offense) as I had seen Bryan do so many times or take multiple vacations as Kelly had done.
One day right before I decided to quit the job a coworker of mine suddenly went off on one of the white managers. He was using profanity and simply quit on the spot. Per this coworker who was a longterm associate of the company he had been called “Nigger” by the manager. Specifically he stated that the manager had approached him and asked him about his “numbers” that he was putting up for his team. He mentioned that three of his workers were out sick. Then the manager reportedly said “I don’t care, pull them out your ass Nigger” which caused him to quit. I wasn’t surprised by this. Soon after I quit the job.
I found a part-time job at a major health company in Dallas after this. Even with a college degree I wasn’t good enough for the permanent jobs the white employees had even though it was pretty clear they had no experience or education to justify their positions or salaries. One day right after I started the job I was on the elevator with several of my white coworkers. Ever since I was hired they had completely ignored me. Never spoke. Said hi. It was if I didn’t exist. Well, this attitude continued on the elevator where they commenced to talking about our boss, a young black guy who was obviously shit scared of them and they probably knew it. If he was to ever anger one of them it wouldn’t take too much for one of them to lie, or for two or more to conspire against him to say his hand slipped or that he had said something wayward against them. Our boss was extremely careful with them. He managed a division with all white women (except for me) of course. Any request they submitted to him, whether it was for time off or anything else was automatically approved. Well, this day during the conversation they had in front of me they repeatedly referred to him as a “monkey”, “ape”, “gorilla”.. With one referring to him repeatedly using the phrase “high monkey” because he was able to take some time off to honeymoon as he had just gotten married. I was shocked an appalled at their behavior. But of course I said nothing. Creating a scene would not have done any good. I am sure Authur (my boss’s real name) knew what was up. He was a smart man.
I soon tired of this job and quit. I moved on.
Well, my last contract position was no different. The company, also in Dallas, TX, had contracted for a large telecommunications company. They ran blacks in and out of the company like cattle. This company suddenly changed its mind on how much it was paying people and forced everyone (under threat of termination) to sign an agreement agreeing to have their wages reduced by $4.00. NOT because the company was suffering. The company was making more money than ever. The company had suddenly decided instead of paying $17.00 for the position that was supposed to be paying around $26.00 per hour. Well, the company decided it wanted to pay around $13.00 per hour. Those people who did not agree to this (and many of these people had left other jobs/positions that paid more than $13.00 to work at this job) were suddenly fired and were labeled as misconduct by a manager who was instructed to “find anything” against them. This company would routinely fire employees without warnings who had maxed out on pay or who had raises nearing. After terminating the employees they would engage in character assassination to the Texas Workforce Commission just to save a few bucks on their Unemployment Insurance taxes. This was done systematically. They put a lot of thought into literally setting up employees for termination and accusing even the best of employees as having committed “misconduct”.. There was also open favoritism with the white employees. So much so that at this point I started thinking of starting my own business. ANY business. I didn’t care. I am still in the planning stages of the business now.
Well, other than the racist aspect of working in Texas, the businesses in Texas in general are some of the most corrupt and crooked I have ever seen. I liken Texas with its right to work laws to Africa where you can come in, there is basically no regulation, and you can exploit everyone you can as quick as you can to make a buck. These companies out here, many which are new, have no sense of shame. They lie and scam and scheme and they put themselves out there as “legitimate” companies who have storefronts, etc. but they are nothing but lowlife crooks who have set up shop to make a buck. They go into depressed areas of town and charge exorbitant prices for everything. For instance, I have good credit and a great driving record. I had already had an insurance quote from Geico and several other places who sell insurance about a liability only policy for my car. All quotes received were under $30.00. Well, I called a local insurance company and asked for a quote for liability. They came back with a whopping $60.00 per month. I asked the lady why. She lied and stated “Oh well, you haven’t lived in Texas long enough and for people who haven’t lived in Texas long enough it’s going to be more money”. LOL…BULLSHIT.. And I told her so as well.
The apartment communities are very exploitative. If you pay $400 monthly on an efficiency apartment and your job has screwed up your overtime and you pay your rent on the 4th instead of the 3rd…Look to pay over $100.00 in late fees (at least)… And yes, it can get very expensive. The late fees which Republican Texas Lawmakers have written in a very ambiguous manner (intentionally) leaves it up to the apartment association to decide what are “fair” late fees and these places can and often do charge late fees that are more than the actual rent. Now one may say, well just pay your rent on time. But what they don’t understand (or even care about honestly) is the impact these types of “open exploitation” policies have on the poor. For those individuals who work hard to pay on time but have paycheck mishaps or maybe emergencies, these communities simply don’t give them a break..Oh well, let me correct myself, they “do” give breaks if you are living in an upscale rental in Plano or Frisco where they know you can go somewhere else. However, the places where people are poor and working class simply don’t give breaks. They charge the maximum amount.
One thing is clear however.. there are a lot of flagrant abuses in Texas. The businesses have rightfully counted on people not knowing their rights and not pursuing their rights. I even called the local JP Court and the clerk who answered seemed to be a business advocate and informed me that anything in a written contract, no matter how exploitative or in violation of the law, is legal. I told her she needed to call her law school, “if” she had gone to one, and request a refund because she came out just as stupid as when she went in. It’s reasons like this that keep Texas a low wage, abusive, exploitative, right to work state.
Back to the racism aspect which ties in so closely with the points I was making about exploitation, I found that a number of the City and State employees were highly educated people. These individuals often held MBA degrees and were working as Dart Bus drivers making $13 dollars per hour because the racism and good ol’boy mentality they came up against refused to even recognize their educational achievements and didn’t care about them and they could only get hired as contractors or temps. However, white kids coming right out of school (actually “before” they graduated from college) had lined up jobs making $60K to $70K right away. There is a big gap in white and black income in Texas, specifically Dallas, that I attribute solely to racism.
Folks, they don’t want us in their companies. I told my mother that and she agreed. As an african american we need to start our OWN businesses. We HAVE to. Or else we will continue to lead in the unemployment rate and the number of court cases we have to file because of the mistreatment.
The thing is this: You have the federal government that states to them they have to hire blacks. Although they don’t want to. So grudgingly they will hire two or three. Then the federal government states they have to at least promote one black person or else. So they grudgingly promote a black person. Yet their old ways continue. Does anyone honestly think we can change a systemically racist system overnight just by being in the room. Everyday they look at us, ESPECIALLY black men, they are filled with disdain and reminded that the company they run is in a way controlled by the federal government. They want to openly be racist. They want to openly discriminate. It literally takes a lawsuit to try to effect change in many of these corporations. They want to do as they please. They have their own system and in a way I have always felt as a black person that I “WE” are an unwelcome visitor in their places of business.
How can we stop this or even minimize it? Tell the big businesses who give contracts to these racist companies to give contracts to black companies who can hire us and then we know (or at least hope) we will be treated fairly. If we continue to work for these racist redneckish white owned businesses they will continue to underpay us and exploit us and abuse us. I have seen it too many times. As blacks we should be tired of having to run to the EEOC and these governmental organizations to defend us. It is time we started defending ourselves.
terribleboss 