Unpaid Overtime

No one likes working for free, even if they are salaried employees who just happen to love their jobs. For 36 years, I’ve worked for free.

Entitlement is a privilege and a handicap I KNOW nothing about it. I work twice as hard to be considered...
— Cari Champion (@CariChampion) December 4, 2014

Before you dismiss this post as another “woe is me” rant, ask yourself:
-          Do you know it is like to be followed in a store?
(I do. Any Dillards and the Gap in Avon. Hell, anywhere on Route 44 between Winsted and West Hartford. )
-          Do you know what it is like to be mistaken for the help?
(Again, I do. Years of retail and tech tend to do that. I guess I look like a Gap employee who happens to be your favorite tech support guy. Damn the fact I taught English for eight years.)
-          Do you know what it is like to be petted like a dog because of your hair?
(That I have not. The women in my family and friends have not been so fortunate, particularly if they are natural.)
-          Do you know what it is like to have your ideas initially cast aside as the black guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about, only to be implemented without receiving any credit for your efforts?
(All the time. I’ve even been called a liability in some team-building exercises.)
-          Do you know what it is like to be told to “get over” slavery after #neverforget Pearl Harbor, September 11, the Holocaust, etc.?
(I do.)
-          Do you know what it is like to travel and worry about finding a “safe” place to eat, purchase gas, or even after a long day’s drive?
(I have. See the Dairy Queen in Anderson, MO and its deafening silence, any Chili’s restaurant, and the proliferation of Confederate flags near my destination.)

So have millions of other black Americans. Rich, poor, and middle-class. Uneducated, and those with Ph.Ds. and JDs. Famous and anonymous. Even POTUS has endured the trials in his policies and setting an agenda.

I’m tired. I can’t breathe. Tell Fabolous I can’t breathe with the weight of the world on my shoulders and neck because NYPD has it in a chokehold or Darren Wilson shot it six times or George Zimmerman was scared.

#WhyImTired The American political/justice system does not care for us unless it is emptying out our pockets.

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) December 9, 2014

How can I lead the way if society emasculates, humiliates, ignores, profiles, chokes, drags, shoots, or hangs us daily?

I’m tired of your bullshit apologies, press conferences, detached presidential speeches, reluctant diversity sessions, the gone-too-soon funerals and a legal system that is stacked against me and mine.

I tell ya, I’ve been working a lot of unpaid overtime for the past 36 years. From having to be twice as qualified for half the respect and a fraction of the pay. (I’ve gotten in a lot of trouble for saying that line with a certain former employer, who is embroiled in racism allegations. In a way, serves ‘em right.) From my body of work, I think I should have a greater role in how we evolve as a people. Disagree? My ancestors, in large part, built this nation for free. Think about it – and without the advantages of receiving western land at the turn of the century, learning how to farm and manage it via land-grant colleges, in addition to being shut out of low-interest loans.

To understand the plight of unpaid overtime, view this Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. sermon on economic injustice and see how it moves you.