Honestly though, I wasn’t trolling. As I said, the race part wasn’t really what I was focused on; to me it is just a story about a person behaving unusually obnoxious and belligerent and giving the a lot of shit needlessly to the cashier.
This might sound crazy to you, but the stereotype about black people not having credit cards unless they are stolen is a new one to me. I think it is a pretty ridiculous stereotype considering in all my years of retail I never noticed any significant difference in black people using cards; almost everyone used cards very few people of any race paid with cash.
It could work. Some stores have the capability to take Amex but do not because of the higher fees. That was not the case in this situation, but perhaps the lady thought if she made enough of a stink she could get what she wanted.
While there is no evidence one way or the other regarding the proper ownership of that AmEx card, one strategy a LOT of store scammers use is being loud and aggressive and playing race, sex, and I’ve even seen disability “cards” to get harried clerks and managers to acquiesce just to make them go away. It has been a long, long time since I worked retail, but after the first 6 or so months, I started assuming that any belligerent customer was really just trying to cheat the store (not that I cared on my $3 and change minimum wage).
I swear, asking why a black tattoo on a black person’s arm appears dark green, instead of black, will ring alarms at the racist police headquarters around here.
By that time she would have known they wouldn’t be seeing it anyway. And her behavior might have been the result of anger and frustration due to having forked over $25 or $50 of what little money she had to buy the card on the street only to find she can’t use it…or at least not in an easy and convenient way.
On the other hand she might have been given the card to use to pick up something for someone who owned the card and her anger was due to hyper sensitivity to racism. However her behavior makes it unlikely she’d be associating with/employed by most Am Ex cardholders…unless perhaps said cardholders were in the music business.
Are you somehow under the impression that Amex cardholders are some exclusive group? I don’t know if that was ever the case but it hasn’t been so for decades.
This, along with the ultra-aggressive posturing once the store policy was announced. If you tell me that you don’t accept AMEX, then okay, here’s the Visa or a debit card. If I go absolutely apeshit because you don’t accept AMEX, then that is probably the only method of payment I have available, and I am desperate to complete the purchase now.
Really? I went straight for more prestigious card, with an annual fee, and more stringent credit qualifications instead of the Chase Bank Visa? I cancelled all of my cards except for the one that everyone knows is not accepted in a lot of places?
And I just must have this item at this particular store and cannot wait until all the stores are open on Monday?
Or I stole it and need to make the purchase before the owner cancels it? Which is far more likely?
The stereotype is that black people are thieves and criminals who would try to scam you, not that they specifically steal credit cards. I’d absolutely love to live where you live if you’ve never heard of this stereotype.
And the idea that belligerent customers are usually thieves doesn’t match up with my experience nor with the stories I’ve seen about others. They’re usually just really entitled. It seems quite likely to me that race influenced your determination, even if it was entirely subconsciously and unintentional.
Anyways, in my opinion, the best response is to apologize for offending and to say that, now that you know it could be perceived as racist, you’ll be more careful in the future.
What you said is definitely the type of joke I’ve heard my racist relatives make.
Not buying into the racist thing but this particular point I don’t agree with. Extreme entitlement very often goes with criminal behaviour, since many such people have absolutely no understanding of the concept that they may not be entitled to do whatever they want.
Annie may or may not be racist, but either way I would take the whole story with a grain of salt. Annie either wildly over-exaggerates the interactions she has with people out in public, or she has the misfortune of constantly running into the rudest, most wildly inappropriately behaved people that most of us might encounter only once or twice in a lifetime.
