"Black people must leave...." A Walmart incident.

In My Humble Opinion
1

The link to the reported incident.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Black-people-must-leave-NJ-apf-1749619349.html?x=0

I don’t know why people get all bent out of shape. It was obviously a stupid prank, probably by a former or current and disgruntled employee. Someone simply picked up one of the phones and made a PA. Ha ha, giggles for everyone involved.
So, the PA announcement went as follows, “Attention, Walmart customers: All black people, leave the store now.”

I get that it’s a horrible prank, immature, jajune, etc. Also, stupid bigotted, racist and unclever.

Couple of thoughts though, directed at the offended;

IT WAS A PRANK, GET OVER IT!!
Honestly, did you think it was a store employee that did this? And even if it was, the asshat jerkface will be fired yesterday.
You KNOW it’s a prank, and the prankster asked you to leave the store…so you DO? And you vow to boycot? Are you obtuse? Now you’ve ironically complied with the pranksters wishes!
You should have went home and organised an anti-boycott, whatever that would entail. If it were really a bigotted thick-headed redneck highschool kid who thought he was the shit, he’d be pissed that his “prank” backfired.
Also, expecting the store to apologise like it was a PA initiated by corporate and carried out by a competent manager is also ridiculous. Everyone in the store heard it, everyone was shocked when they heard it, not just blacks. If I’d been in the store I would have been more uncomfortable than any black person around since I’d be carrying the guilt of association by color to the idiot that pulled the prank. It’s been reported, I’m sure they will modify the phone system so random people can’t make PAs.

Take a deep breath people.
It isn’t the store that was at fault, it was some idiot that had the simple knowledge of how to use one of their PA phones.

Anyone else want to throw in?

2

I saw that story on Fark and two of the customers said they were boycotting Wal-mart now. That made me think: “Are they stupid?” It’s not like Wal-mart endorsed the prank. At worst, they are only negligent in leaving a desk unattended where some jackass could get to the phone and hit the PA system.

My friend’s dad used the PA in a big department store thing once (I think it was Canadian Tire, but I don’t remember, we were pretty young.) I do remember what he said though. After waiting and waiting and waiting, he picked up the phone, got the PA to work and said: “Customer requires assistance in hardware.” No one came. Then he picked up the PA again and said: “Customer is rifling through the cash register in hardware.” That time it produced a store employee.

3

Most PA codes are just a number or two. These days, if you didn’t get it directly from an employee, I’m sure you could google it.

4

Or it’s stuck to a post-it note with a list of extensions right next to the phone.

5

Clearly a terrorist attack.

6

I think some people are seeing potential dollar signs (lawsuit) so are making a fuss over nothing. Like being involved in a fender-bender and exiting the car complaining how your neck is hurt despite being perfectly fine. If not dollar signs then at a minimum grabbing 5 of their 15 minutes of fame.

Yes the statement was rude and obnoxious. No way however that Walmart in any way endorses this view and, as noted, if the person who did it was an employee they were very likely fired about a minute after doing it.

I have no love for Walmart and glee in most anything that makes them squirm but this is much ado about nothing.

7

My life motto is to try hard not to give offense and try twice as hard not to be offended. I truly try to laugh everything off that I can find any humor in at all. Makes for a relaxed and mirthful day. Relax, Walmart shoppers.

8

I once made three PA calls in WalMart trying to get help in sporting goods. The PA number was listed right on the phone. :smiley:

First call: Customer needs assistance in sporting goods.

Three or four minutes pass

Second call: Customer still needs help in sporting goods

Another four minutes go by

Third call: Customer leaving sporting goods to spend his money in a different store

Saw a manager or two heading down the aisle as I walked away.

9

Not sure how it is in New Jersey, but around here if all the black people *did *leave the store, there’d be nobody to ring up my 50-lb bag of Sam’s Choice Tropical Trail Mix.

10

Why take your anger and indignation out on some nameless prankster, when you can do it on somebody equally pranked, but left holding the bag?

When you’ve been outraged, it must be blindly deferred. Quick! Grab your pitchforks!

11

Is this idiot implying that she thinks this is some kind of official statement issued by the company? Does she really think there can be a “why”, other than it was a moronic joke? Oh right. . .

Good job they didn’t say “all stupid people must leave the building now”.

12

Whether it was an employee or other prankster, this was the appropriate response:

That’s what you do if you’re a responsible store manager. And they did it.

Anyone still pissed off should be off looking for the person who made the announcement, unless they somehow think it was all a big conspiracy by the store to randomly insult black people and then deny it.

13

Maybe it was. (Grows nervous)

14

This was obviously a prank by a non-employee. If Walmart should be expected to do anything, it’s to announce that they’re making their pager codes more difficult to determine so that some random asshole can’t do this again. All of the anger directed at Wallmart over this is stupid beyond belief.

15

Ever heard of “negligence?” Whether or not Wal-Mart made the announcement themselves is irrelevant. They don’t mean to make someone slip and fall … but if they leave a wet floor, they get sued. That’s the deal. The victim’s pain and suffering is the same, whether you meant it or not.

16

Yeah, they’re all stupid becuase they’re black, that’s it.

17

Don’t get in the way of yourself.

18

The announcement itself was a racist joke. I don’t think anyone is disputing that.

WalMart is not responsible for somebody making a racist joke. But they are responsible for how they respond to it. Do they investigate and fire the employee who did it (assuming it was an employee) or take some action against the customer. Or do they simply let it go - in which case they are endorsing it by having a policy that racist jokes are no big deal and not worth doing anything about.

19

Fascinating. If a customer standing in the middle of the store suddenly shouts “ALL BLACK PEOPLE MUST LEAVE!” is Wal-Mart liable for “pain and suffering”?

20

WTF?