While walking in my friends and I went to get what we wanted so that we can go back to the front. I finished getting my stuff before them because they were taking to long to get what they wanted. When I walked to the front of the store I seen the cashier lady looks at her co-worker and gave him an eye that told him to go to the back and make sure my friends wasn’t stealing anything. While my friends are still figuring out what they wanted I purchased my stuff and went to the back to check on them. When I went back there I put my things in my book bag and the man that work there said, “A young man what are you doing?” I replied, “What are you talking about I purchased this.” He said,” When?” I replied, “Just now the receipt right here.” After I showed him he was lost and didn’t have anything to say. He continued to follow my friends and out of all the people in the store at that point he just had to continue to follow my fiends. After my friends and I was ready to leave out another group of boys was walking in, but instead they were a group of white boys coming from soccer practice. When they walk in I didn’t see the cashier give her co-worker the eye like she did when she seen us. Still looking I seen one of the boys put a Gatorade in his bag without of paying. I thought to myself well wow just because my friends and are were African American we were followed around the store because you thought we were going to steal but because the other group was white you didn’t think they would steal.
Actually being in that situation made me think that this is always how it’s going to be and it will never change and it will always be like this. But this is the country that says we all are one and everyone is equal. I have yet to see this country prove and show what our constitution says. What martin Luther King said he wanted to happen have not happen but we are in a world were the odds are against African Americans. But for me I won’t let that stop who I will be. I will fight through the odds that are against me and to prove to those that doubt me that I am better than what they think I am. I am determined and just to prove them wrong will help me continue my determination.
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Go ahead Reggie! Show them who you truly are. One thing though, I disagree with your point that change will never come. I do not believe that it will always be like this because that would mean losing hope. Hope we cannot lose. MLK knew this and he fought for hope to stay alive. I know you know this and believe it because you yourself have said that you will fight through the odds. You will show people who you truly are and that they are wrong. Your fight is proof that there will be change because YOU ARE THE CHANGE!
ReplyDeleteI know what you saying and that is true, there was a similar thing that i went through with my cousins, we went to wall-greens at Connecticut and the cashier which was a lady left her place and took and eyes to us while the time we were buying, just by the fact of being Hispanics. I guess racism in all over the US and it will be hard to disappear this problem because in many communities racism is like a common factor. i guess we just have to wait until the new generation eliminates this problem.
ReplyDeleteYour situation reminds me of a Dave Chappelle skit. Dave Chappelle had walked into a store, and the cashier followed him around the whole time. When the cashier was busy following Chappelle, a white man was stealing hundreds of dollars worth of food and stuffing it in a bag. While it was used as entertainment, it holds true. People never suspect Whites of doing anything, and maybe that's why Blacks fill up more than half percent of all jails. If that was me, I would have told on that boy; that could have ended racism at that store
ReplyDeletehow funny is that.....the white boys stole from them while they were too busy following upright paying black Americans. It's just funny! That's where ignorant people get exactly what they deserve.
ReplyDeleteWhile being too busy targeting innocent people, they will lose the very thing they are trying to protect.
I know this kind of thing happens to young black men more than black women but I was proud to read that you will continue to rise above it all. Let these situations be the fuel that drives you to be the best person you could possibly be. In this way, as people try to keep you down, they are actually helping you get to the top.
Love it!
Good blog Reggie. I can't begin to tell you how many times I continue to experience such scrutiny... and don't let me be dressed down and relaxed, as opposed to slacks and a nice shirt. Interesting how a white man in soccer shorts and a wifebeater is seen as less suspect than a black guy in jeans and a polo... but i digress. Yes... It's instances like these in 2011 that really frustrate me when people talk about post racialism. While i believe there has been progress around racism, and will continue to be, I think that we are closer to ending it, not when we pretend we've moved past it, but by fervently fighting it wherever we see it. Fight on, brotha. It's a good fight that will make those you honored in your blog very proud.
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