Summary

Jaron Mays describes his experience with systemic racism and disrespect in the workplace, leading to his decision to quit his job at a plastic packaging warehouse due to poor treatment by racist management and inadequate pay.

Abstract

In a personal essay titled "I Finally Got Tired of the Racism — That’s Why I Quit My Job," Jaron Mays recounts his time at a plastic packaging warehouse where he faced both overt and covert racism from his white supervisors. Despite the job's simplicity, Mays struggled with the systemic white supremacy that manifested through disrespect, undervaluation, and underpayment. He details the behavior of an overtly racist supervisor who took pleasure in exerting power over Black employees, including attempts to fire them. Mays also touches on the broader scope of racism in various societal settings, from school to the police station. His decision to leave the job was a stand for self-respect and a refusal to tolerate a toxic work environment, reflecting his pride in being a Black man and his commitment to maintaining his dignity.

Opinions

Racism is pervasive and not limited to extreme cases; it exists in everyday environments such as schools, parks, and workplaces.
Systemic white supremacy in the workplace can manifest through undervaluation, disrespect, and underpayment of Black employees.
The author experienced two types of white supremacist attitudes from his supervisors: one who was overtly racist and took sadistic pleasure in exerting power, and another who was covertly racist.
The author believes that standing up against disrespect is more important than keeping a job that compromises one's self-respect and dignity.
There is a critique of some Black men at the workplace who tolerate racism and disrespect, which the author describes as embarrassing and weak.
The author's pride in his identity as a Black man and as a man is central to his decision-making and response to racism.
The essay suggests that the broader societal structures, such as the judicial system, often fail to hold individuals accountable for racist actions, as seen in the case of the ex-Chicago police officer who killed LaQuan McDonald.

BLACK EMPOWERMENT

I Finally Got Tired of the Racism — That’s Why I Quit My Job

And the pay sucked

Most people believe that racism is just when some hillbilly white dude calls you the n-word, but racism is everywhere.

Racism is at school, at the park, at your local McDonalds, at the Catholic church, and most definitely at the police station.

Ex-Chicago Police Officer Who Killed LaQuan McDonald Gets Away with Murder

Once again, America shows its ugly head by letting another race soldier off the hook for murdering a Black person

medium.com

But for me, my biggest issue when it comes to racism (systematic white supremacy), is going into a job where I am undervalued, unappreciated, disrespected, overworked, and underpaid.

The last real job that I had was at this plastic packaging warehouse — well, technically my last job was at PepsiCo but I don’t count it because I only worked there for four days then I quit.

I worked there for a little over three years.

Just to be blunt, the job sucked. It really did. Not because it was necessarily hard to do. A brain dead panda bear could do the job. What made the job hard was because of two things: raggedy-ass machines and racist management.

I had two supervisors during my time over there, both were white of course. So I had the experience of dealing with two types of white supremacists: covert and overt.

Let me talk to you about the overt white supremacist first.

The first white supervisor was overt. This guy didn’t mind expressing his anti-Black racism towards the Black workers under him. Picture a 6'4 245lbs. white man from the most country part of town in Louisiana who has the same exact hairstyle as Hulk Hogan and has a beer belly. That was him.

This was the type of dude who enjoyed his position a little two much. He enjoyed having the power of someone’s livelihood in the palm of his hand.

If this man sees it fit to fire you and has a legit reason no matter how small it is, he would do it in a heartbeat and brag about it.

Firing people gave him an erection — that’s how much he enjoyed it.

He was the type to call you boy, treat you like a child, and belittle you because he knew he could get away with it.

But what made it even more shameful was that the Black men that was over there just stood there and took it. It was embarrassing and weak.

He tried to pulled that with me, but I wasn’t having it. I would call his ass out in a hot second if he came at me crazy. He tried to get me fired at one point, but it was to no avail. Even if he did, I wouldn’t care.

If I have to tolerate being disrespected to keep a job, then you can take your job and stick it up someplace where the sun doesn’t shine.

My respect means everything to me. Being a Black man means something to me.

Being a man means something to me.

We Can Learn A Lot From White People

White people have achieved the success that we as Black people can learn from and use to our advantage