Targeted By An Unlikely Source: An Enlightening Encounter With Racial Profiling & Implicit Bias
Hope Infusion Newsletter - Juneteenth Edition
June 19th is of special significance to me for a trio of reasons. It’s the birthday of my youngest child, it’s Juneteenth, and it’s the 2nd anniversary of the day I claimed personal freedom from a toxic and racially insensitive workplace.
157 years ago today, slaves in Galveston, Texas received word that slavery had ended. They had been free since 1863, but there was a two year delay in their receipt of that news.
Two years ago, today, I embraced a new freedom; That of liberation from an organization whose views, ethics, and business practices were no longer congruent with my own.
Signs that I needed to depart the dysfunction of that environment had long been evident, but it took two years of escalating conflict for me to fully process the reality that my season there had ended, and the time for departure was at hand.
Sometimes we remain in bondage longer than necessary because we missed a revelation about freedom. On this June 19th, the freedom revelation has been received, welcomed and embraced.
Happy Juneteenth!
Targeted By an Unlikely Source
My husband and I thought we understood racial profiling. But when he was targeted as we shopped at an out of state location of the corporation by whom he’s been employed most of his adult life, our perspective was irrevocably altered.
Last Spring he was presumed to be a shoplifter at the Mall of America in suburban Minneapolis. We flew there to visit friends—not quite a year after the police killing of George Floyd, a few weeks after the police killing of Daunte Wright, and in the immediate aftermath of the trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer found guilty of George Floyd’s murder.
We are Black. But the friends we were visiting are White, lifelong Minneapolis area residents. We engaged in several frank discussions before we flew to visit them to alleviate concerns about the level of racial tension, and to express their confidence in the safety of the areas they planned for us to visit. Concerns assuaged, we set aside our worries, boarded a plane, and moved forward with our plans.
We were on our own the first day there, and stayed at a hotel directly across from the Mall of America. We’d been to the Mall before, knew the Bloomington suburb in which it’s located well, and entered the premises devoid of concerns and eager to shop…..until 20 minutes after we entered the first department store.
Ironically, the store entered is part of the national retail chain with whom my husband has established his career.
Ironically, he knows this company’s policies inside out including what to do to avoid looking suspicious.
Ironically, he has trained countless associates and managers on these policies and protocols.
And yet....the Store Manager approached him and offered to “hold” the merchandise he’d selected up to that point at the checkout counter. He politely declined, because he was still shopping, and not ready to finalize his purchases.
In response, she began to follow us around the store at a distance, stopping when we stopped, moving when we moved, trailing us department to department....gaze transfixed like a lion stalking prey.
She was dressed in khakis and a button down shirt, her brownish-blonde hair pulled into a ponytail, and her manager tag on prominent display. But her attire was also invisibly adorned with presumption, prejudice, and a finishing touch of implicit bias. After several minutes of not so subtle surveillance, my husband decided he’d had enough and needed to address it.
“Hi, let me introduce myself,” he began. He told her his name, and followed with, “I’m a twenty plus year member of management with this company. Here is my company ID, and drivers license”---he removed both from his wallet, and presented them to her.
He then detailed his observations about the manner in which she had trailed him, shared his knowledge of company shoplifting protocols, and pointed out the ways in which her actions toward him had violated established guidelines. His tone was firm but measured, and he framed the conversation as a manager to manager “teachable moment”, intent on keeping the exchange civil.
She led with denial, but quickly pivoted and conceded the truth of what had transpired, confirming his suspicions regarding the reason for the surveillance, after which she apologized. He ended the conversation by broaching the subject of implicit bias and stressing the importance of being mindful of it in interacting with customers.
The encounter was a living illustration of how implicit bias works, and the hypocrisy that undergirds the denial that it exists.
As a Black woman living in the southern United States, I’ve grown weary of hearing that if Black people just cooperated, or just behaved more professionally, or were just better groomed, or were just more articulate, or just ....fill in the blank....
We are told that if we just did some of these things, or all of these things, we would not be profiled, or targeted, or discriminated against, or singled out, or randomly stopped by law enforcement officials.
That supposition is a farce and does not comport with the lived reality of most African Americans, and none of the ones I know personally.
That supposition is infuriating in light of situations like the one described here, which occur far more frequently than most white people realize.
That supposition is insulting and ignores the inconvenient truth that Black people are judged by a different standard at every level of society.
In the experience of my family, these situations have become exponentially more common in recent years. And if you assume it’s an issue limited to Black males....it’s not.
My daughter had the police called on she and a group of her college classmates for filming a class project, in a public park, on a Saturday, in the middle of the day, 15 minutes from my home in a north Atlanta suburb. Why? The woman who called said “Something didn’t look right!”.
Fortunately, the policeman who arrived was polite and apologetic. But why was he called in the first place? What “didn’t look right” about a small group of college students armed with video equipment?
Our experiences underscore a common and unfortunate reality: Implicit bias is pervasive in this nation. As long as skin color is considered an immediate cause for suspicion, to the exclusion of all else, we will continue to encounter these type problems.
In last Spring’s encounter, the Store Manager volunteered at the end of the discussion that she is an interracial relationship—married to a Black Man. She offered it as proof that she has no personal prejudice against Black people. And yet, her lived reality didn’t stop her from viewing my well dressed, pristinely groomed Black husband as suspicious.
Even my offer of that qualifier about his grooming and attire is telling. Why do I feel the need to share it? Why should his dress or grooming even be an issue to be raised? Implicit bias is subconscious. Yet it can adversely influence conscious behavior—even for those in a love relationship with a person of a different race.
If America is ever going to live up to the aspiration of “liberty and justice for all”, rather than settling for liberty and justice for some, we have to deal with some harsh realities and tell ourselves the unvarnished truth about them. We can’t fix what we won’t acknowledge.
I hold out hope that while many hearts have been hardened amidst the turbulence, tumult, and resurgent racism of the last few years—that at the same time, many eyes have been opened....some for the first time.
All’s Well That Ends Well
Despite our trip to Minneapolis getting off to a rocky start, it ended on a high note. We’ve visited the Land of 10,000 Lakes three times, and this was by far the most eventful and enjoyable trip of the three. I’ll share more of the lessons learned and insights gained during that vist in part 2 of this story which I’ll share in a future post.