Racial Profiling/Racism - Don't Close Your Eyes To This

I am coming to you with something that I am sure many of you have experienced; racial profiling/discrimination. It has been happening to people of color for years, but many of us fail to do anything about it or we are so used to it that it seems to be common place behavior. I feel we are all guilty of racially profiling or stereo typing at some point and time in our lives, especially when it comes our own people; I found it to be a bitter hard pill to swallow when I experienced it in a H & M Clothing Store located in Sun Valley Mall, Concord, CA. Don't get me wrong, I have been through it many times, but I am sick and tired of being treated like a criminal without probable cause. So I guess you could say this was the straw that broke the camel's back, which compelled me to write.

Me and my fellow artist and good friend Miz Dre, walked into a H & M located in Sunvalley Mall on a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon. We entered H & M with one of their bags and another store bag in hand to browse in order to exchange some previously bought items from different location of their clothing chain. After browsing the store for about 5 minutes I noticed an employee (young white woman, blonde hair, blue eyes) who appeared to be everywhere Miz Dre was shopping acting as though she was placing clothes on a nearby racks. Suddenly, she speaks into her 2 way radio (in code of course) saying she needs "an 1115 in section 3" and 3 minutes later a tall dark skinned young black man "appears" in the same section we are shopping in. At this point, we became suspicious of them and began to feel somewhat uncomfortable by what they appeared to be insinuating, so we took our browsing over to the accessory section. As Miz Dre was showing me a pair of gunmetal gray leggings, the same woman (who we now know as 'Lauren' from her plastic name tag) is coincidentally checking that rack as well. Miz Dre calmly turned around and and asked 'Lauren' if, "she'd like to help us with something" since she appeared everywhere we were. 'Lauren', in her nicest, snotty tone replyed, "I can help you if you need something" (Now had we needed help in that store she would've been nowhere to be found). Miz Dre replyed in an annoyed tone, "no I don't need your help but, you might as well if you're going to follow us around the store like we are going to steal something". 'Lauren' and the two of us are now standing face to face getting ready to square off, when Lauren says, "This is my store and I can refuse service to you if I want to"! Now, us being black girls seemingly being accused of attempted shoplifting (when we had a pocket full of money) and being told to suck it up or get out by a white chick, added fuel to the smouldering embers from a fire that had been slowly burning within us for a long time; now 'Lauren' is refered to as a bitch, which somehow made her feel threatened to the point of calling the young, black security gaurd over to intervene (deal with his own kind) and make us leave. There are a lot of minute details that I will leave out of this, but when we asked for a complaint form, we were denied, when we asked for the corporate head quarters number, we were told to "check the website" (basically told to figure it out) and when we asked why we were being followed, we were told we exhibited "suspicious behavior". That last response blew me away because I couldn't understand what was so suspicious or different about the way we shopped that made them single us out from the other 30 or so customers who all browsed with various shopping bags in hand. There is only 1 logical reason that comes to mind; we were the only young black females wearing urban attire (looking stunning of course) in the store. Anyways, to make a long story short 2 white security officers (a tall, fat, middle aged male and a short, paled, faced older female) were called because we weren't listening to our African Connection. They actually threatened to physically remove us (Please! I wish they would've) if we didn't leave, but of course we stood our ground, which resulted in the Concord PD being called to mediate (arrest us, the "Trouble Makers"). When they arrived, they told us (not in so many words) that the clerk had a right to be suspicious of us because we walked in with an H & M bag in hand (which was full when we walked in, not to mention they have sensors on all their items, so how can we steal without being noticed). This was one of the most humiliating experiences I've had in a store where I was attempting to spend my hard earned money. The way the 'Lauren' said she trailed us because of "suspicious behavior", made me feel sick to my stomach and saddened by society's (this includes Europeans, Asians, Hispanics and other Africans) analysis of black & brown people.

People have been brained washed into thinking that all of us are roguish riffraffs that should be watched. Don't get me wrong, I am by no means saying that there aren't many of us who will steal if given the opportunity, but what about people like Winona Ryder, the rich, white actress who got caught stealing from a high end department store. Do you think they were following her through the store watching what items she chose from the rack? Hell No! They just so happened to catch her ass because they were watching the camera and saw her stuffing shit down her pants. This surprised a whole lot of people and made them think, "this bitch is rich, what she gotta steal for?". She didn't need any of the stuff she was stealing and claimed it was research for an upcoming movie role and she was going to return and pay for the items (Shit maybe I should put on some white make-up and use that line after robbing a bank, "Uh, sorry I robbed your bank, but I was doing it for an upcoming movie role. I intended to give the money back when I was done"...hahaha...done spending that shit).

Now that that's off my chest, I can get back to the real reason I wrote this rather than filing a report with their corporate HQ; I want to educate the people. Think twice before you patronize an establishment that is willing to blatantly follow you everywhere you go while you shop in their store to spend your hard earned dollars, which makes them richer and your ass slightly poorer. Sure they are providing a product that you could use, but you can just as well get goods from another store or boutique that sells similar items and appreciates your patronage. H & M and (though it is not aforementioned) ALDO shoes are officially on my shit list and I highly suggest that my people take their money elsewhere because although 'Lauren' probably has her perception of "Colored People", the upper level management of these types of companies has trained their staff to "suspect" certain individuals based on physical attributes. So, next time you walk into a store wearing your skin, look over your shoulder to see who's watching you. You might just end up quoting Michael Jackson's song, " I always feel like somebody's watching me".

Until the next time ya'll, I'm out!

"Spread conscientiousness like pneumonic plague, go out and sneeze on somebody! If I sneeze on you and you sneeze on him, we are all bound to slowly, but surely catch it" - Iesha Powell, 2007

Peace & Blessings