MAID IN THE LAB
OUR STORY
An Excerpt from our 'About Us' book, Maid in the Lab
LIKE AN OAK
My Great Aunt was an Upstairs Maid. She worked as a Maid on the upper floor of the plantation house.
During this time, it was not uncommon for black girls in my ancestry to stop school and start working full time as young as the 3rd grade.
Some worked in the rice fields. Specifically, my direct relatives worked on Arundel Plantation. I am the first of the first generation of my South Carolina lineage NOT to work on Arundel Plantation.
My Great Aunt talked to me with strength and her voice shook the ground. She told me that once when she was mistreated at work she left the plantation and walked home. She said her Mother asked her to please go back to work to help the household and she agreed.
After many years when work on the plantations became more scarce, she organized transportation for the Women in the village of Plantersville, South Carolina to go to work on The Beach, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to work as Maids for the flourishing tourism that was happening.
She started out driving a carload of Ladies, the original Ride Share, to The Beach. She moved up to a bus so more village residents could get to work. When there were more people who needed transportation than there were seats, she put folding chairs down the aisle of the bus.
Her sharp mind elevated her Community and helped provide education & opportunities that impacted families for generations and is even continuing to impact generations to come.
She told me, 'I'm going to tell you how to be Strong Like an Oak', her voice thundered then she whispered, 'you do what you want to do Samantha, not what anyone else thinks you should do! Do what God has for you to do!'
Her innovation & courage helped my status in education too. My direct relatives were part of her transit system. And my descendants are reaping from her will and intellect.
As a girl, she decided to help her home by working for a despicable plantation manager. She made the choice to do so however, and hopefully our future lineage will be spared that reality.
I really hope that our daughters & son & future heirs don't have to work for an asshole. Or an abuser of bodies & minds. Or a belittler. Or have to consider the whims of an imbecile for their flourishing. Or worse, a combination of these...
A PERFECT UNION
I'm the Perfect Union. The heir of a motel Maid. A mistreated upstairs Maid. A Maker of rice. A Maker of homes. A Homemaker. A paper Maker. A textile Maker. A soda Maker.
Maid. In a Lab.
THE NEW NOW
When employment was scarce, my Great Aunt provided a method to transport other women to new ideas of work in compensation and dignity. She had a system of transit.
I have systems of cosmetics manufacturing processes. Of formulating. The door is open for you to travel on the ground I've broken. It takes work but it's worth it. Make your Lab your New Now.
Samantha Dickey is a Cosmetic Scientist, STEM Advocate and an expert in lab-scale Color Cosmetics Manufacturing & Graphics Technology.
Her early career days included AutoCAD drafting, around-the-clock manufacturing in production quantities of multi-millions per year, and Lab Science testing & corporate Leadership.
Her professional skills & talent includes meticulously drafting detailed workflows for organizational excellence and high quality high design products & experiences.
She continues to make strides in STEM by empowering teens & lab-scale producers in cosmetics manufacturing technology.
Our small-scale-manufactured high design cosmetics have got us features on
- Fox 5 Atlanta with Paul Milliken
- Forbes
- CW69
- Travel Girl
- Spotlyte Atlanta
- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- Faces of Atlanta
- CBS 46
- Hype Hair Magazine
and trade shows in Atlanta, New York & Hollywood and much much more.
