By Catherine Imani
While listening to the Breakfast Club in the car with my partner on July 10, 2019, I found myself specifically intrigued by Charlamagne’s Donkey of The Day segment. In Donkey of the Day, the radio personality makes fun of someone for essentially making an ass of themselves in public. Today, that Donkey was Markia Nelson, a Black low wage worker who used the resources available to her to double the meager salary she was being paid by her employer, Dunkin’ Donuts.
As a manager at Dunkin’ Donuts, Nelson added a fake employee to the system, and for over two months pocketed the fake employee’s checks. In that time, the fake employee clocked in for 235 hours and only made about $1,600.
When asked why she did it, Nelson replied that she needed money for living expenses, which makes sense. In Largo, Fl where the crime took place, the average cost of rent for a one bedroom apartment is $1,100. Nelson only made about $9 an hour, which meant that she would need to work at least 122 hours a month to afford an average rent alone. That doesn’t include the cost of transportation, food, healthcare, or anything else that the average person needs, what to speak of their wants.
As a full-time worker clocking in at least 160 hours a month, more than 75% of Nelson’s income would go to her rent. She needed the money. Charlamagne even admitted that she needed the money, but he thought it was better to belittle her and shame her on a national scale than empathize with her. He chose to misrepresent her income, making the unverified claim that it was around $40,000 annually when every source I have found showed this to be untrue.
Even before I started doing research on this case and Nelson’s economic condition, listening to Charlamagne’s malicious jokes aggravated me. I remember working low wage jobs and spending over 75% of my income on rent. I know the struggle of these jobs not ensuring a stable schedule which bars you from getting a second job, even if you had the energy to take transit to get there on time.
The exploitation that Nelson experienced is very familiar to me, and her solution was brilliant in its simplicity: Rob the thief.
Under capitalism, there is always a huge gap between how much low wage labor benefits a company and how much it benefits the laborer. People who critique capitalism recognize this phenomena as the Surplus Value of Labor, which is the difference between the money labor brings in and how much a laborer actually gets paid. Capitalists call this same figure the Revenue per Employee, which is the total revenue of a company divided by the total number of employees in the company.
According to MarketWatch, the Revenue per Employee for Dunkin’ Donuts is $1.19 Million USD. If there is $1,190,000 coming in for each employee, while Nelson’s yearly salary is $18,720, that means she is the one who was actually getting robbed. Even if we take into account that some employees might work more than others, Nelson would need to work at least 66 years to make up that gap.
Let’s look at the CEO of Dunkin’ Donuts, David Hoffman.
Hoffman makes $4.8 million in total compensation a year. If he was a full-time employee working 2,087 hours a year, he would make $540,500 in the same 235 hours that Markia made an additional $1600.
That’s a ratio of about 388 to 1.
Where Markia needs to work 122 hours to afford the average rent, Hoffman would need to work 30 minutes. If we are saying $1,190,000 in Revenue per Employee is fair, then Hoffman’s salary is more than 400% of what his labor is worth. While Markia would need to work at least 66 years to match the Revenue per Employee figure, Hoffman would need to work 517 hours, or 64 days.
Is his labor really that much more valuable than hers? Is her “crime” of taking $1,600 really as bad as Dunkin’ Donuts and their CEO David Hoffman stealing the surplus value of $1,172,000 a year of Markia’s labor from her? This is not to mention that she’s not the only worker who’s surplus value is being stolen by the company.
If you work for a publicly traded company, consider googling how much the “Revenue per Employee” is at your job. How different is that number from your annual pay? How does it make you feel to know that you are likely also being robbed in the same way that Nelson and all Dunkin’ Donuts employees are being robbed?
During the segment, Charlamagne callously reiterated that Nelson’s bond for various charges exceeded the money she reclaimed, before even taking into account her lawyer fees. How does it feel to know the state is charging her at least twice her reclaimed income in an effort to put her in modern day slavery for her decision to survive under capitalism? \
In Florida, the state that has allowed the murderer of Trayvon Martin to not only walk free but to attempt to profit from the murder of a child, the unpaid labor of prisoners powers the state. The work of unpaid Black people ensures the flow of “waste and public works departments, grooming cemeteries and school grounds, maintaining and constructing buildings, treating sewage and collecting trash.” Even though the practice of contracting the state’s enslaved population is illegel, the state of Florida continues to do it.
Charlamagne has forgotten what it is like to work poverty wages while having his labor stolen to fund the lifestyle of a white man who does not work nearly as hard as he does. He tried to paint Markia as a lazy scammer who made a stupid decision, a woman who is invested in a life of excess and getting luxury items like the City Girls instead a Black woman who was being robbed and defending herself.
To be clear, even if Nelson did want a taste of luxury that would be her prerogative, as every Black person is owed luxury and rest and leisure. On the land where our great great grandparents were property, were our enslavement went from covert to rationalized and hidden, where our subjugation powers the economy that is then incentivized to find newer and more creative ways to subjugate us, it is the literal least we are owed.
If what Markia did is wrong, then it is time we redefine what is right. I fully support Markia Nelson and am disgusted with Charlamagne for choosing to open her up to ridicule for reclaiming her stolen labor and surviving while poor and Black.
The State of Florida is throwing the book at Nelson because they don’t want her to inspire similar action from other Black people and class oppressed people more broadly. Could you imagine what a mass movement of reclaiming stolen labor would look like? How many more people could pay rent and eat? Or pay for life saving medical treatments and afford to take a car home instead of having to walk obscene distances? How many low wage workers are in management positions who could also do what Markia did, and maybe even do it for other workers in their companies? What happens if HR departments start practicing direct action through working to benefit the worker instead of against the worker as they do now?
Markia Nelson is a political prisoner, and should not be thrown into the slavery of the Florida Prison System for defending herself from economic theft.
We know that Black theft in a society where Black people are capital is a radical act of survival, and we know that Black survival will always be penalized in a society intent on our genocide. This is why it’s imperative that we protect Markia and ensure that people like David Hoffman and other CEOs pay for their widespread theft.
Where Markia’s decision to “steal” ensured her survival, David Hoffman and other CEOs just like him choose to steal for profit and their own exorbitant lifestyles. They know that their theft will leave people homeless, unable to afford healthcare, and starving. They don’t care and they don’t want people in similar situations as Markia to care either. When people like Charlamagne ridicule people like Markia, it makes it easier for us all to pay less attention, especially when we are all already bogged down by our own survival. We still must try. We have nothing to lose but our chains.
Suggested Reading:
Amber Butts, “Decriminalizing Black theft, and the right to steal in an anti-Black capitalist society“, RaceBaitr, 2019
Julia Ott, “Slaves: The Capital that Made Capitalism“, Public Seminar, 2014
Rich Boy, “Let’s Get This Paper“, Youtube, 2007
Catherine Imani is a hood strategist, theorist, and founder of Gurl! The Black Femme Retreat. You can tip them at Paypal or CashApp, and talk to them directly on twitter @imaniloves_you or on instagram @catherine.imani. Don’t forget to support them on Patreon as well.
