That said – on the other hand – race could have played into the equation by the person not being given the benefit-of-the-doubt. These days, customer behavior is supposed to be much more important in determining who is suspicious than race – but a racial bias can make an employee deem a behavior “suspicious” in a black customer that he/she would have seen as harmless in a white customer. It is a complicated issue – and there are lots of “shades of grey”. That's why in some ways – it is more challenging being black in 2009 than it was in 1950. Racism is more complex, can be layered or “disguised” underneath so many other factors – and is often denied. It causes a lot of confusion and frustration.

In my own experience – I am “profiled” and “watched” suspiciously all the time in stores – but these days, I don't see it in the stark racial terms that I used to see this behavior. The main reason is that I've noticed that black employees now watch you as much (if not MORE) than white employees (then again, black people have been known to harbor racial prejudices against “their own”). Maybe it depends on where you live – but here in Atlanta, black people have gotten into the “retail loss prevention” game in a big way. I'm just as likely to be watched/followed/offended by a black person as I am a white/other person.

For example – when I first started shopping at Whole Foods, I would have complaints about the (white) employees slyly watching me in the aisles – always seeming to find some reason to be near me as I'm browsing the shelves (you know the old, tired “restocking the shelves” trick). But after awhile, I noticed the plethora of black employees Whole Foods employeed – and started noticing that I would be blatantly stared at by these black employees. These employees weren't staring at me because I'm good-looking (though I wish this was the reason): I picked up on the fact that the staring was an institutional, “silent” way to send the message to “suspicious” customers, “You're being seen. Don't steal.” I actually think Whole Foods got clever about the whole loss-prevention thing – and realized if they employeed black employees to watch and “intimidate” black customers, then the whole racial angle would be in large part circumvented.

But it's not only Whole Foods – I notice it everywhere: black employees (or black Loss Prevention employees) watching suspicious customers. So it's not so much a white-on-black, pure “racial profiling” thing anymore. Not to me.

By the way, I'm a perfectly innocent customer who doesn't steal (I never have). I just notice a whole lot, and it isn't pretty. Open your eyes: if you're anything like me, you're being glanced over, stared at, watched, followed, suspected ALL THE TIME. Even the phrase, “May I help you?” doesn't mean what it used to be – these days, “May I help you?” is often Retail-ese for “I'm letting you know I'm here, and that I see you – since you seem suspicious. You better not steal.” Or, they may utter, “Did you find what you were looking for?” at odd times: the whole concept of “customer service” has been perverted into a loss-prevention tactic.

That said – on the other hand – race could have played into the equation by the person not being given the benefit-of-the-doubt. These days, customer behavior is supposed to be much more important in determining who is suspicious than race – but a racial bias can make an employee deem a behavior “suspicious” in a black customer that he/she would have seen as harmless in a white customer. It is a complicated issue – and there are lots of “shades of grey”. That's why in some ways – it is more challenging being black in 2009 than it was in 1950. Racism is more complex, can be layered or “disguised” underneath so many other factors – and is often denied. It causes a lot of confusion and frustration.

In my own experience – I am “profiled” and “watched” suspiciously all the time in stores – but these days, I don't see it in the stark racial terms that I used to see this behavior. The main reason is that I've noticed that black employees now watch you as much (if not MORE) than white employees (then again, black people have been known to harbor racial prejudices against “their own”). Maybe it depends on where you live – but here in Atlanta, black people have gotten into the “retail loss prevention” game in a big way. I'm just as likely to be watched/followed/offended by a black person as I am a white/other person.

For example – when I first started shopping at Whole Foods, I would have complaints about the (white) employees slyly watching me in the aisles – always seeming to find some reason to be near me as I'm browsing the shelves (you know the old, tired “restocking the shelves” trick). But after awhile, I noticed the plethora of black employees Whole Foods employeed – and started noticing that I would be blatantly stared at by these black employees. These employees weren't staring at me because I'm good-looking (though I wish this was the reason): I picked up on the fact that the staring was an institutional, “silent” way to send the message to “suspicious” customers, “You're being seen. Don't steal.” I actually think Whole Foods got clever about the whole loss-prevention thing – and realized if they employeed black employees to watch and “intimidate” black customers, then the whole racial angle would be in large part circumvented.

But it's not only Whole Foods – I notice it everywhere: black employees (or black Loss Prevention employees) watching suspicious customers. So it's not so much a white-on-black, pure “racial profiling” thing anymore. Not to me.

By the way, I'm a perfectly innocent customer who doesn't steal (I never have). I just notice a whole lot, and it isn't pretty. Open your eyes: if you're anything like me, you're being glanced over, stared at, watched, followed, suspected ALL THE TIME. Even the phrase, “May I help you?” doesn't mean what it used to be – these days, “May I help you?” is often Retail-ese for “I'm letting you know I'm here, and that I see you – since you seem suspicious. You better not steal.” Or, they may utter, “Did you find what you were looking for?” at odd times: the whole concept of “customer service” has been perverted into a loss-prevention tactic.

George W. Bush’s vicious hatred of black people will blow you away.

Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993

“Anyway, I'm following the rotation and a two sets of black patrons happen to come in on this one guy's rotation. After I seat the second table he storms the host stand, yelling at me like a mad man, accusing me of purposefully seating him with black folks so he wouldn't make any money.”

I am not going to lie, there have been times where I have felt I was put in the “Black section” of a restaurant. I have went off on anybody, but I have certainly took note.

The most recent incident was over the summer at a new restaurant here in Hyde Park. Perhaps, it was a simply matter of the rotation schedule. However, it seemed to coincidental that all the Black folks were in the same section.

Sometimes, it is easy to be paranoid.

My best friend stopped tipping waitstaff that profile her and I should do the same. It's not right at all.

I have another instance of seeing it from the other side.

I worked at this restuarant in the River North area of Chicago some years back and there was this assumption from the wait staff that most of the black patrons came over from Cabrini Green. I don't know why they deduced that, because, although Cabrini Green wasn't far from where I worked, the restuarant was in downtown Chicago and everyone from around the city and suburbs came downtown (that's a no-brainer).

In any case,
There was an assumption by all the servers and hosts that black folks didn't tip and they were the ones more than likely to ditch the bill. I knew deep down that wasn't a universal truth, but my coworkers, white, black, brown and other really BELIEVED it.

When I say this was a multi-cultural staff … it really was, we had an Indian guy, black woman, gay man, deaf gay man, white folks, rich girls, poor girls, country folks anyone you could imagine worked in that restaurant but they all seemed to hold that same stereotype as fact.

One day, we were really busy and I was hosting, I was following the evening rotation I set up. Anyone who has ever hosted knows what that is … basically you set up stations for the servers at the start of your shift and rotate the tables that way. So when patrons came in, whomever turn it was to be seated, that's who got table.

Anyway, I'm following the rotation and a two sets of black patrons happen to come in on this one guy's rotation. After I seat the second table he storms the host stand, yelling at me like a mad man, accusing me of purposefully seating him with black folks so he wouldn't make any money.

I was shocked and embarrassed. I couldn't believe he was acting that way … the most surprising thing was … that he was black himself.

Go figure.

So that conditioning that Talibah spoke of seems to happen but it's far from right. It's wrong … period.

Suspicious behavior by ANYONE should be the issue, not just the fact someone is brown or black.