A few years ago, I was shopping for a bracelet for my daughter. It was for a holiday present and I thought I would get her something nice. So I went to a jewelry store near me and started looking around. After about 10 ten minutes a salesperson come to me and asks can I help you. I told her I was looking for a bracelet for my daughter. You know what she told me? We don’t carry that type of jewelry and I should try the mall. I’m like what? “There is a mall in Martinsburg, maybe you should go there.” I said ok, and left. It was the first time I had experienced consumer racial profiling and it was not something you forget. Several time on my way to the mall, I started to turn back and make the “#&%@*&” sell me something, I didn’t care what it. In the end, I figured I wasn’t going to let them have my money. I went to the mall where a jeweler happily took it, and with a smile. So what is consumer racial profiling?
Commonly called, “shopping while black or brown, (SWB)” it involves a person of color being followed around or closely monitored by a clerk or guard who suspects he or she may steal, but it can also involve being denied store access, being refused service, use of ethnic slurs, being searched, being asked for extra forms of identification, having purchases limited, being required to have a higher credit limit than other customers, being charged a higher price, or being asked more rigorous questions on applications. It could also mean a request for any item the store actually carries being denied with the store attendant claiming that the item doesn’t exist or is not in stock. This can be the result of store policy, or individual employee prejudice. Consumer racial profiling occurs in many retail environments, including grocery stores, clothing shops, department stores and office supply shops, and companies.
This ugly form of race bias is becoming more and more frequent. According to a 2015 Gallup poll, more African American adults feel discriminated against while shopping than doing anything. This sentiment includes encounters with the police. In 2002, researchers who conducted in-depth interviews with 75 black people living in black neighborhoods in New York City and Philadelphia found that 35% reported receiving consistently negative treatment when shopping in white neighborhoods, compared with 9% who said they received consistently negative treatment in their own neighborhood, (Probably by other minorities). In 2014, Macy’s agreed to pay a $650,000 settlement over claims it had racially profiled customers. In 2014, Barneys had agreed to a $250,000 settlement over a similar claim. It is usually assumed to occur mainly in the United States, but has also been reported in the United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
Some of us still remember the time Oprah, “you know you got the dough when they only use your first name” Winfrey, was the victim of SWB in Switzerland. According to Oprah, “I was in Zurich the other day at a store whose name I will not mention. I didn’t have my eyelashes on, but I was in full Oprah Winfrey gear. I had my little Donna Karan skirt and sandals, but obviously The Oprah Winfrey Show is not shown in Zurich. I go into a store and say to the woman, ‘Excuse me, may I see that bag over your head?’ and she says to me ‘No, it’s too expensive. Winfrey says she asked again to see the bag — a $38,000 crocodile skin number by Tom Ford — and the woman again refused, saying, “No no no, you don’t want to see that one, you want to see this one, because that one will cost too much and you will not be able to afford that.” Winfrey says she asked a final time to see the bag: “One more time I tried — I said, ‘But I really do just want to see that one,’ and she said, ‘I don’t want to to hurt your feelings,’ and I said, ‘Ok thank you so much, you’re probably right, I can’t afford it and walked out of the store. Now why did she do that?” By the way the store was Trois Pomme. They apologized saying the entire incident was a “200 percent misunderstanding” and had nothing to do with racism. Yeah right.
Even in my home town of DC, which at the time was 89 percent black it happens. In 1995, a young black man shopping at an Eddie Bauer store in near Washington, D.C., was accused of having stolen the shirt he was wearing, and was told he would need to leave it behind before leaving the store. He filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging “consumer racism”, and was awarded $1 million in damages. But still that’s a new one, “you stole the shirt you wore in the store.” Michael Moore really said something when in one of his books he advised black readers to shop via online stores and catalogs only, and said if they needed to shop in-person they should do it nude, otherwise “they’re just asking to be arrested.” Watch this segment of “What Would You Do?” It shows SWB in a particularly foul regalia.
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