So the video store I work in has undergone a rash of shoplifting lately. All of the shoplifters, as far as we’ve been able to determine, have been African American.
The store is kind of on the fault line between two very different neighborhoods: one of the richest neighborhoods in Seattle–we have two billionaires and two Oscar winners as customers–and one of the poorest neighborhoods. Seattle’s a relatively well integrated city; its “ghetto” doesn’t nearly approach the conditions of Chicago’s or New York’s. There’s a higher concentration of black residents and businesses in the “Central District,” but it’s not blighted or anything. It’s a ghetto in population only.
Anyway. We have a lot of black customers, and it never occurs to me to “profile” them; a couple of them are my regular classics-junkies. But for the two years+ I’ve been working here, every time we’ve had to ask someone to leave because they’re a crackhead or shoplifting or drunk or whatever, so far, they’ve all been black.
Now I know that’s not a fair sampling of the world at large. It’s only the specific conditions–and only, I realize, so far; and only, I realize, what we’ve been aware of–but insofar as one can absorb any kind of conditioning in such a situation, I find myself–we all find ourselves, my coworkers too–paying more attention to, and giving less benefit of the doubt to, black people who come in the store and A) are not recognized as customers; B) have a noticeable layer of “street”–you know, park-bench-dirt, or that lovely urine+alcohol smell; C) are noticeably, um, impaired; or D) exhibiting specific shoplifting behavior (will explain if necessary).
As I said at the top, we’ve had a whole rash of this lately. (We think one person finds us an easy mark, and then spreads the word.) To the point where one of my coworkers has taken it upon himself to follow around the store any black person who’s not a recognized regular customer. Me, I’ve suggested that if anyone seems “suspicious,” we should ask if they’re a customer, and ask them to leave if they don’t have an account with us.
The problem I’m bringing to this thread for discussion, though, is that this whole episode has made me feel like a racist.
Is there a logical solution to this problem that does NOT include the racial aspect? I’d especially like to hear from black dopers who have experienced such retail profiling. Understand, I don’t have any problem offending the actual shoplifters; whenever you kick one out they always accuse you of racism anyway. I’m just uncomfortable about the black non-billionaires who are NOT planning to shoplift, but who will unavoidably experience closer scrutiny than the white non-billionaires who come into the store.
Thoughts?