In a scene reminiscent of the racist Jim Crow era, black employees at the Atkinson Cotton Warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee, endured racism at the hands of white supervisors.
According to reports by WREG in Memphis, Antonio Harris and Marrio Mangrum revealed how white supervisors used racism to instill fear in black employees.
The racist supervisors would call black employees “monkeys” and once told Mangrum that he should, “Think like a white man.” On another occasion, a white supervisor pulled down his pants in front of black workers and told them to “kiss his white tail.”
After months of enduring the racist treatment, Harris decided to record his white supervisors with his cellphone. On one recording, a white supervisor prevents Harris from drinking from a water fountain, telling him it’s a “whites only” water fountain.
On another recording, Harris attempted to use a microwave before being stopped by his supervisor. The white supervisor told him that he couldn’t use the microwave because he isn’t white. He then went on a racist-filled rant on how segregation wasn’t bad when it was practiced in the past.
Harris asked the supervisor what would be done if he decided to drink the water. The white supervisor threatened Harris by saying, “That’s when we hang you.”
Harris and Mangrum have filed a discrimination complaint with the EEOC. The supervisor being accused is still employed at the cotton plant, but he is on vacation.
