Employee attends work party at Alabama plantation dressed as enslaved person

A Black employee, who dressed as an enslaved person to attend a work party at an Alabama plantation, sarcastically said he chose that attire because he didn’t have “many options” after they were told to show up in “period appropriate” costume.

The employee, who goes by the name BisFitty on Reddit, posted the story on the platform 7 years ago, HipHopWired reported. But it recently went viral on Twitter after a user by the name @LWStewarty shared the post alongside photos of the Black employee’s costume.

In the Reddit post, the employee said his employers probably forgot he was the only Black worker when they decided to have the costume party at the plantation.

“As a lot of you already know, I had to attend a ‘corporate retreat’ this weekend, that happened to take place on a southern plantation in Alabama. There was a ‘period appropriate’ costume ball scheduled for the end of the trip, but they apparently forgot about me, their lone black employee. Hilarity ensued,” he wrote.

In a separate thread, BisFitty shared photos of his costume at the party. The Black employee showed up wearing a shirt and pants that were all rolled up. He hooked the pants with a rope and wore a straw hat. He was also barefooted. 

“There aren’t many options for someone like me…” he captioned in one of the photos. Another photo also showed a perplexed White colleague pointing at him as posed at the plantation’s staircase. 

BisFitty said the party was ultimately canceled. But he said they blamed the weather for the cancellation.

“In the end, the boss canceled the party, and the CEO, who was supposed to be at the party, never showed up. The reason they gave for canceling the party was ‘inclement weather,’ and, while it DID rain, and the party WAS supposed to be outside, the location had more than enough space inside for there to be some sort of contingency plan,” he wrote.

“It’s also a bit odd that the CEO canceled, as far as I know, he isn’t allergic to rain. My thoughts? I think the climate was just a bit… dark for him.”

The Black employee also said the woman who brought up the idea for the party was fired while he gained promotion. But he said his employers informed him that his promotion had nothing to do with the plantation party.

“She has been canned, I have been promoted, with a disproportionate raise, and better benefits, but I have been ASSURED that this has nothing to do with anything that happened on the retreat, and just happens to be coinciding with HRAsstDir canning. So remember kids, correlation =/= causation!” he wrote.