CAREERS Special Edition
Page 4
August 15, 2018
A Career Owning and Driving Trucks
When Earnest Parker Jr. wanted to go to
college, his parents did not have the mon-
ey. Now he is earning more money than
many college graduates—by owning and
driving trucks.
After five years of steady work and
savings, the North Carolina resident had
amassed enough money in his 401(k) re-
tirement plan – with the help of his em-
ployer, who matched his contributions – to
buy his first truck. He put down $3,000 on
a W900 Kenworth for $110,000.
Parker bought a second truck, a Freight-
liner Century, for $30,000 in November
2017. With unmistakable pride, he jokes
that his fleet “grew by 100 percent.”
Working near Statesville, N.C., just
north of Charlotte, Parker does not believe
his lack of a degree has held him back.
“For the money that I’m making, I prob-
ably wouldn’t be doing too much better
even if I did go to college,” he said.
After paying all expenses, Parker takes
home about $750 per week (roughly
$39,000 per year). “I’m pretty happy,” he
said. “Everybody always feels they could
get a little more, but I look at what I can
provide for my family and I’m really not
in need.”
Parker can provide hope to the growing
Earnest Parker Jr.
C ontinued on P age 14
Diversity
C ontinued from f ront
to add to his own mentoring, including Los
Angeles actress and producer Keena Fergu-
son of the Emmy-winning FX show ‘Atlan-
ta’ and New York based director Che Broad-
nax. Portlanders Ime Etuk, who was the first
assistant director of the Netlfix show ‘Ev-
erything Sucks;’ and authors David Walker,
Renee Watson, and Mitchell S. Jackson will
also lend their support.
Kamryn Fall, Elijah Hasan, Tamera Lyn,
Sika Stanton, Noah Thomas, and Dustin
Tolman are the project’s fellows, while
local filmmaker RaShaunda Brooks will
act as production coordinator for the pro-
gram. The filmmakers are slated to screen
some of their work a year from now, and
Bell said he expects thematic similarities
to arise.
“One thing that I’ve talked with a lot
of the fellows about in leading up to this
point is a lot of our stories--because some
of the folks grew up here, because of our
identity and culture--I think there’s a lot of
overlap in terms of what kind of stories we
can tell.”
Because of that overlap, Bell said, it will
free up the cohort to get into the “nuts and
bolts of how to create empathy with our
audience,” rather than trying to decide on
subject matter.
A $2,000 year-long stipend, training, ac-
cess to industry-standard equipment, staff
and actors from Artists Repertory Theatre,
and connections to the field via the Oregon
Governor’s Office of Film & Television,
will be provided to the fellows.
In Bell’s own illustrious career, which
ranged from creating national public tele-
vision educational programming to being
on the production team of big name Hol-
lywood films, like ‘Mystic River’ and ‘The
Departed,’ it was a fellowship for WGBH
in Boston, Massachusetts that first gave
him the taste for public media production
after college.
Bell returned to Portland when he had a
child in 2010. He worked for Oregon Pub-
lic Broadcasting from 2011-14 and later
for WHYY in Philadelphia, Penn., cover-
ing gentrification radio and web-based vid-
eo stories.
His 2014 personal essay, ‘The Air I
Breathe,’ and a subsequent video, ‘Future:
Portland,’ both created for Oregon Human-
ities, were poetic takes on what it means to
be black and displaced in Portland.