On Being The Right Color

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Twice in the last week or two, I’ve been the “beneficiary” of racial prejudice, or at least I think I have. I’m not quite sure how I should feel about it.

**Case #1: ** I went with my ex-wife and kids to help her get a TV from Wal-Mart. I tagged along mostly to help her pick one (we’re still good friends) and to help load it into and out of her car and get it set up in her house. After some searching, she settled on a 28” flatscreen (flat CRT, not plasma), and I loaded the bulky, hefty box onto our cart. Once we got to the front of the store, I told her to take the kids, get the car, and pull around front while I waited in line to buy the TV.

At this point I should mention that this particular store is in a predominantly black neighborhood and I, while I am half Asian, look nominally white. Of the people I saw in the store that night, I’d venture a WAG that 75% were black, and most of the rest Hispanic. Anyway, there’s the stereotypical Old White Man Checking Receipts At The Door Of The Wal-Mart[sup]TM[/sup], and he is checking everyone leaving. I get into line behind three or four black people who are waiting to get their receipts checked. OWMCRATDOTW-M looks up, sees me in line, sees my cart, and waves me through the doors. And he did so in a very obvious fashion. He waved me through the doors with a $500 television set, while forcing these other people to stand in line so that he could rifle through their bags of shampoo and honey roasted peanuts. I didn’t know what to say, so I pulled the cart out of line and walked right out with it, making an elaborate show of holding my receipt out to him as I passed. I was baffled.

**Case #2: ** On my Saturday with the kids a couple weeks ago, I took them to an activity at the ex’s church as a favor to her. One of the activities was a “get-to-know-you” type thing where you filled out a short survey card about yourself and then they drew the cards out of a box, read them aloud, and everyone had to guess whom the card referred to. Anyway, after the activity this stereotypical Kindly Doughy Middle-Aged White Church Lady[sup]TM[/sup], who is apparently some of my kids’ Sunday School teacher, came up to me.

KDM-AWCL: “OneCentStamp, I had no idea you were half Vietnamese!”
**1CS: ** “Yes, I am. It doesn’t look that way, but it’s true. Actually, my little brother looks much more typically Asian than I do.”
**KDM-AWCL: ** “Well, that’s why your kids are so smart. They have those oriental brains!”
**1CS: ** “…”
**KDM-AWCL: ** “I sure wish I’d got me some of those smarts!”

Now, she was really nice and I could tell she meant it as a compliment, so I wasn’t about to throw it in her face, but I was pretty much speechless.

Anyway, just thought I’d share some stories from the “up” side of racial profiling. :smiley:

2

Nice to see you’re a “glass half-full” kinda guy. And I’d be speechless, too. The human race never ceases to amaze me.

3

If the only thing you had in your cart was the TV then the cashier may have put a sticker on the box. The old coot spotted the sticker and waved you through.

4

Good thought. My ex-wife actually suggested that (the whole waving-through incident was discussed thoroughly on the way to ex’s house), but when we got home, we could find no sticker.

Her other idea was that maybe he’d spotted me in the checkout line paying for it, but I was on the far end of the row of registers. There’s no way.

5

It might have been simply that you had only one item, and that the likelihood that someone could so calmly yet brazenly stroll off with an entire TV might not have occurred to the old guy. When I used to work retail for a large electronics/appliances/entertainment chain we had checkers up front who would, when a little overwhelmed, just wave through folks who had one or two obvious (even if large) items in their cart, especially if they were already holding their receipt (because it’s generally assumed if you’re holding a receipt, you just bought something, and if your cart only has one or two things in it, the chances one of them wasn’t paid for was pretty negligible). It was the bags and open-box items that could conceal anything they would usually pay much closer attention to.

6

I hope it was that; I honestly do. I felt like such a…cracker. :frowning:

7

But in your heart you know you’re a rice cracker, and that’s what counts!

8

<snort> Everybody in the library is staring at me. Thanks. People will think I’m as crazy as my patrons, barking and snorting to myself.

9

I agree with the above. I’m sure there are other survey systems set up to make sure no one walks out with a tv. I think they inspect bags because they’re looking for easily stolen items such as DVDs/CDs.

10

I just signed up with CostCo, and they actually had a sign up by the receipt checker person which said they checked the receipts to make sure I was charged properly for the big-ticket items in the cart, not, as I had always suspected at Sam’s Club, to make sure I wasn’t stupid enough to successfuly sneak something past the checkout stand by hiding it on my person and then dropping it into the cart, knowing somebody would compare the contents of my cart to the receipt. I felt relieved.

In your case, however, the OWMCRATDOTW-M figured you would have said something about it if you were overcharged for a $500 item, and didn’t care if you were undercharged for it, because it’s still a big chunk of money for Wal-Mart.

Hey, it could happen.

11

OK, so there seems to be a growing consensus here that Case #1 may have been simple laziness or standard procedure rather than benevolent racism. You’d think I could have figured that out for myself, what with my sweet Oriental brains and all. :smiley:

[Homer]mmm…sweet oriental brains…[/Homer]

12

Similar upside racial prejudice.

I (honky) live in Tokyo and am currently working with a bunch of Chinese guys (all contract workers), and we were comparing areas and apartment prices and such. So one of them asks, “Ah so you were able to find a place that would take you?”

“Ah yep, yeah, I only ever had one time when I had a hard time finding apartments back in college, but since then all the apartment places have been fine with me being a foreigner…though…of course I’m white. Dunno if…that would be the same for Chinese…people…” :smack:

But yeah, I get a lot of slack cut on things like being late to get my visa renewed, get jobs easier as a contract worker, etc. But probably not so if I was Vietnamese in Japan.

13

Now that was funny! :smiley: :smiley:

14

That was the perfect opportunity to reply that you wished that as well.

15

It may have been laziness but it was not procedure unless policy has changed since I worked for Wal-Mart. When I worked there from '99 to '01, the rule was any item that is too large to be bagged and/or appears to be high dollar is supposed to be checked by the greeter before it leaves the store no matter the circumstance and I have a hard time believing that has changed. Wal-Mart takes theft incredibly serious.

16

Maybe he should work for the airlines… on second thought, maybe not.

17

Yeah, he’d take all the shampoo away. And what if you bought a box cutter?

18

My experiences with “bag checkage” has varied widely. At Target, I’ve never had the checker stop me to check my bags or look at my receipt–they’ve always just waved me by. My bi-racial daughter, however, gets checked. Granted, I’ve never tried to steal anything from Target, but it has given me pause to wonder if my skin color has given me a free pass. I do walk with a cane, so take disability into account too.

At a different store, though, I’ve had my bags checked every time; and from my brief observations at this store (NWL - National Wholesale Liquidators), they check -everyone’s- bags and register receipts.

19

No idea what on earth you could possibly mean.

20

That may depend on how old your daughter is. Presumptuous checkers are more likely to check teens and young adults than older folks. Physical infirmities too may be something they’ll just wave by because they don’t want to inconvenience you more than the infirmity does.