Full Text of the Excerpt

JOYCE BLACKWELL-JOHHSON:

Let's talk about races. You know the different races . How did the different races at White's get along?

VICKIE JACOBS:

Well, to be honest they did fine, but to me they had the blacks doing the most dirtiest work than whites. They had a few blacks in the machine room. Very few blacks in the cabinet room. Most of the blacks were in the finishing. they were the fanciest jobs.

JOYCE BLACKWELL-JOHHSON:

What about pay? Was there a difference in pay?

VICKIE JACOBS:

No. Each individual maybe sometimes had different pay. Like I said, they paid pretty good.

JOYCE BLACKWELL-JOHHSON:

O.K. So there was not really a difference in pay based on color or race?

VICKIE JACOBS:

Not that much.

JOYCE BLACKWELL-JOHHSON:

O.K.

VICKIE JACOBS:

Although some maybe, let's say some did get paid just a little bit more than the other. .

JOYCE BLACKWELL-JOHHSON:

But in terms of the kinds of jobs that blacks had they were usually not considered "as good" as those given to whites?

VICKIE JACOBS:

Yeah.

JOYCE BLACKWELL-JOHHSON:

You had also whites and blacks, any other ethnic groups working at White's?

VICKIE JACOBS:

In Hillsborough maybe one or two Mexicans. .

JOYCE BLACKWELL-JOHHSON:

Mebane.

VICKIE JACOBS:

JOYCE BLACKWELL-JOHHSON:

What jobs did Mexicans usually have?

VICKIE JACOBS:

They usually put them--. The only one around us was--. She was . [laughter] When she spoke she spoke Spanish. She worked in finishing, too. In Hillsborough they mostly worked in the finishing.

JOYCE BLACKWELL-JOHHSON:

What about between men and women, any difference in treatment or where they were hired or pay or anything like that?

VICKIE JACOBS:

I have heard that it was. Some would say . I had done it myself. I proved to them that a woman can. But that didn't make any difference. . We didn't make no big deal out of that. Some of our work was just a little bit heavy. But I proved to them that a woman could do it.

JOYCE BLACKWELL-JOHHSON:

O.K. When you say you proved to men you could do it were you hired in a particular department?

VICKIE JACOBS:

No.

JOYCE BLACKWELL-JOHHSON:

You just went there and did the work without being assigned to that department to make a point.

VICKIE JACOBS:

Right.

JOYCE BLACKWELL-JOHHSON:

How did you feel afterwards?

VICKIE JACOBS:

I just done it and this was better than .