Queer Man Leaves Behind Homophobic & Racist Microaggressions at Corporate Job & Thrives in the Arts [Video]

By I’m From Driftwood

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Jeremy Rashad Brown had long had a passion for the arts but began his professional life pursuing the safer path – a corporate job that came with benefits and, most of all, stability. This sales career path quickly proved toxic, with Jeremy experiencing both homophobic and racist microaggressions in the workplace. When an industry shake-up faced Jeremy with the option of staying in a hostile work environment or pursuing his artistic dreams, he fortunately chose the latter, thriving as a result and creating an opportunity to lift up other marginalized voices along the way.

Transcript provided by YouTube:

I am from Waxahachie, Texas. Seventeen years ago, I went to UT where I majored in American Studies and Music Business. Upon graduation, since I thought that money was the goal to live a nice, soft life, I got this very corporate job that was so rigid. I had been at this job for about two years at this point. Since I was a natural food grocery representative, I would have to go into a lot of the natural grocery stores.

There was this buyer I had to meet with for the very first time. I had not met him before, so I went into his office really gung-ho. This buyer, who pretty much holds the cards for my quota, used language that just didn’t sit well with me. He was liberally using the f-word in front of me, not knowing that I am a queer man. He also implied that I’m a credit to my race. I felt sunken because I couldn’t move, even though I really wanted to. I had a job to do. That wasn’t just a one-off example; it was indicative of the environment and the industry I was in.

When it came to be around year six within my eight-year career there, I started to find ways to get back to who I was at my core. I started taking acting classes, doing film work, being on sets, and getting into the local Austin, Texas, community theater scene, which is vibrant, talented, brilliant, nurturing, safe, and accepting.

But it wasn’t until a huge industry shake-up for the natural food and grocery industry, when Amazon bought Whole Foods, that I started to think my role was in jeopardy. In February 2018, I got a call from my supervisor, his immediate supervisor, and an HR person. They were doing away with my department. I thought I was going to be let go, but they offered me a lateral position. In that moment, I said okay. I needed my benefits, a roof over my head, and to eat. But on the other side, I saw it as an opportunity. A confirmation to do this for myself. So, I took a leap. I liquidated my 401k and lived off of that for about a year to figure out my next moves.

Around the third month of being “unemployed” or a full-time artist, I became an entrepreneur. In June 2018, I formed my production company, Brown Boy Productions, to uplift marginalized voices and the historically underrepresented, letting them recount their own stories.

Nowadays, I reflect on that meeting with the guy throwing around offensive language and racial microaggressions towards me. The meetings and conversations I have now, with non-harmful language and consensual communication, are like night and day. Sometimes I look back at that past version of me and wish the current me could give a tiny whisper of “it’s gonna be all right, protect yourself, continue to love yourself, and keep pressing forward.”

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This post was previously published on YouTube.

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