MovieChat Forums > Politics > Racial Profiling/White Privilege.(Not wh...

Racial Profiling/White Privilege.(Not what you think it will be)

posted 8 years ago by Rp69 (9)
2 replies | jump to latest

So what do you guys think of this?
My girlfriend and I are as white as can be. We live in a very mixed Eastcoast region. We do most of our food shopping at a Super Walmart in a very black neighborhood. The store is always packed, and we are usually the only white people within eyeshot(most times it seems the whole store).
So we do our shopping, pay, then go to the exit where the door monitor is checking receipts and glancing in carts. There may be five people ahead of us, and people behind us, all black folks. Everybody gets checked, except us. The security at the door just waive us on and check the next black people behind us. Every single time. Doesn't matter what race or gender is guarding the door, we get a pass. We are by no means dignified looking. No shirt and tie, no business clothes, just jeans and sweatshirts. It's not just Walmart. It happens periodically in other stores too, like Home Depot. Just not consistently, like Walmart.
My girlfriend and I take odds on it when approaching the exit, and laugh about it on the way to the car. We could be cleaning out the store.
99% of security is black, we still get a pass. It's like they're profiling against their own people.

[–] [email protected] (5918) 8 years ago

Wow, that's interesting. Reminds me of something that happened to me about twenty five years ago. I also live in the northeast. My sister and some of her friends moved to Washington to get jobs. They lived right outside of D.C. I took a Greyhound bus to visit her. It was night time when the bus arrived and I hoped I'd be able to get a cab.

There were a lot of black people who got off the bus too. In fact I was one of the few white people in the bus station. A black cab driver ignored everyone and made a beeline for me to ask if I needed a cab. I said I did , but I needed to make a call. I wanted to phone my sister's apartment just to tell her friends I had arrived. (my sister was still at work) So he waited for me.

The next time I visited her, I arrived in the daytime. So I sat outside on a bench to wait because she and her friends were picking me up. A little black boy of about ten was selling newspapers. There were a lot of people, mostly black, waiing outside the terminal. I think he had to go use the restroom so he asked me to watch his papers and money.

This happens to me a lot. Maybe I just have an honest face. LOL People hand me their babies to hold too.

[–] Burk48917 (11384) 3 years ago

Because it's cultural profiling, and disregarding the law is more accepted in certain cultures, which often coincides with certain races. They are simply recognizing observable facts, but today we call that racism.