Racist Or Just Bad Customer Service?
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jun 13, 2010
My wife had an incident at Macy's at Carousel Center Mall this past week. She went in to pay a bill. The woman at the counter was taking care of this older couple before her, so she waited. She stated that this woman was really friendly to the couple, talking and smiling and laughing with them, almost like she knew them.
When they left my wife stepped up to make her payment. The woman's mood immediately changed. The woman took the payment stub and check from my wife, processed it without smiling, then instead of handing it back to my wife set it on the counter and turned her back to my wife. And then she just stood there; she didn't have anything else to do, didn't go anywhere, just stood there with her back turned.
My wife was stunned; what had suddenly happened? My wife's not one of those people who often says something, and in this instance she didn't. But she was immediately troubled by the experience, as many of us might be. Of course we've now written the obligatory complaint letters to Macy's here in town and will be sending something through regular mail to the main office in NYC, and a complaint was issued online as well.
Now, here's where we get into these issues of race. It's possible that this woman might have had other things on her mind. It's possible that she was just insensitive to how her actions might have affected my wife's mood. It's also possible that she had left the room when the trainer was talking about good customer service because she had to get something to drink.
Or maybe she was racist. Maybe she didn't like having to wait on a black customer and wanted to show her displeasure. Maybe there was something deeply ingrained in her past that saw something abhorrent in my wife, who people generally like instantly, and decided to protest in her own way. Hey, doesn't Macy's have cameras installed all over the store?
Who really knows? Should it matter? Actually, yes it should matter. Too often minorities are told that they're overly sensitive to stuff, and that they should just let it go and move on. Then those same people wonder why someone takes a physical action of some sort when they're slighted. They're stunned when being told that they have no idea what it's like to be singled out, and to be treated differently. Sometimes, you can't tell someone what it's like to be an invisible man; sometimes, they have to see it for themselves.
I had the same thing happen to me at a Mobil gas station back around 20 years ago. It took the company two years to apologize to me, but I've never gone back to get gas from any of them, though my mother does. My wife will probably go back, hesitantly, because she doesn't hold a grudge as long. I'm thinking that if more minorities held grudges longer, there might finally be some significant change in how we're treated sometimes. Money always seems to talk loudly in the end.
Maybe the clerk, did know the old couple?
Could be, Michael, in which case it makes her an even worse clerk.
As a former military dependent, I’ve lived in several states, in Germany, and I now live in a predominantly Caucausian suburb of Atlanta. The slights are not imagined, they are real. What’s even more real is your response to them. Usually, I politely and quietly ask someone else for a manager, then I calmly and clearly point out the differences to them. My closing statement is usually something to the effect of: this may not seem to be important to you, but you never know who my friends are and how important it is to them. They could be in the corporate office, you never know. Then I give them the eyebrow raise, a smile, and wish them a nice day. Works every time!
That’s great stuff, Lisa, and I’m glad you’re not afraid to look things like that in the eye and try to help get it fixed. It takes guts; I appreciate that.
The same thing happened to me in Manhattan Mall’s Macy’s. I believe there should be much stricter screening and training for employees in the service sector. My girlfriend and I were at Ben & Jerry’s the other day and the employee designated to scoop out the icecream made anti-asian jokes in front of our faces. When I asked to see the manager, they said the only reason they acted like a bunch of baffoons was because the “manager wasn’t here yet”. I wonder who victims of racism can go to in order to catch these ignorant service employees in their act.
Brian, it’s a shame we don’t all have cameras running throughout lives so we could show these people just how they look to everyone else when they’re doing stupid stuff. And doing things just because the person in charge isn’t around shows the lack of quality of the person; shameful.
Mitch, your wife’s story at Macy’s is only the tip of the iceberg! My wife also had a bad experience with Macy’s and since then, we’ve come to understand a much larger pervasive pattern of an issue that is largely underreported: Consumer Racial Profiling. I just wanted to say thanks and share a story with you. Do you have a separate email addy?
Each day, in exercise of $1.2 trillion in purchasing power, millions of African-Americans patronize retail stores resulting in the purchase of goods and services that contribute to the function of our daily traverses in America life. While we enjoy the freedom of choice to now, shop at any establishment of our preference, negative perceptions toward African-Americans have not truly subsided. In eagerness, we rush to demonstrate our economic vitality, showing true, that our skin may be black, but our money is as green as the hues of others. Despite this pseudo-equality, our presence in retail establishments, is often met with heightened suspicion wrought with stereotypical impulses of presumptive criminal activity, or plainly stated, theft. Long the scapegoat, African Americans have carried the burden for fabricators who would accuse us of rapes, murders, and thefts, with many of the deceits ending in lynchings. Yet with the election of the first black president, many rush to proclaim a post racial utopia has arrived.
If utopian parity now exists, how then do we explain the heightened levels of racism striking all over America? Racism extending from the black couple who couldn’t get married in their own Mississippi church, to the man who was welcomed into his Motel 6 room with “Hello Nigger!†on the TV screen. We have witnessed the murder of young Trayvon Martin, followed by Chavis Carter who was handcuffed in the back of a police car and mysteriously killed. We move forward to the Tyler Perry “driving while black†incident and highlight the racist arrest of Harvard professor, Dr. Henry Louis Gates. To no end, the list is ever expansive and also includes the example of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio—who conducted racially motivated mass sweeps for illegal immigrants. And lastly, I would be remiss to not include the 250,000 Hurricane Katrina evacuees who were accused of changing the crime landscape of Houston, Texas soon after arriving en masse to the Astrodome. While of course, some would suggest these atrocities are isolated events; the idea that these actions persist in 2012, demonstrates the strength of racism’s residue on the American landscape.
If as Americans we have to exist with such adversity designated based on race, then I am called to action and inspired to difference, just as a former U.S. President once stated, “If one person can make a difference, then everyone should try.†This statement reigns as a testament for what is possible, when we make a decision to take a stand to improve and evolve the human condition. As such, today I would like to make a difference by sharing and exposing an important story for the benefit of protecting the lives of millions of African-American shoppers. The story highlights specific examples of an unknown scheme Macy’s Department Stores practice to profile/target African-American shoppers—often resulting in unjust criminal convictions-simply used to prevent the falsely accused from filing lawsuits. Until, today I was embarrassed to discuss the effects of racial profiling, however doing so paralyzes the purpose and opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others. Often, it’s not until it happens to you, that it becomes the single most important issue affecting your life. But why wait? Mr. Mitchell, by all means, please feel free to share this story/information with your constituents so that they can be alert and aware regarding which establishments they decide to patronize. Lastly, should you need additional information; I also, have Macy’s video surveillance footage exhibiting racial profiling, and sexual voyeurism, “down-blousing†of female customers via the security cameras.
Thanks for sharing your story Vic; a bit long for a blog comment but you’re passionate about it. And you’re also correct; there is this interesting thing that continues to happen to minority customers, not just black customers, that the majority never see and never believe when we bring it to people’s attention. Obviously I’ve had my tales as well.
And yet, I tend to believe that writing about it and talking about it brings it to the forefront, to the point where eventually people can’t deny that it happens. In our own way we’re Rodney King, both as it pertains to his treatment by the police and the acquittal of those same police by a society that couldn’t identify with the face that the police aren’t always honest and true, and it brought legitimacy to N.W.A. who put it in their music that it was happening and people still didn’t believe it.
Thanks for your comment; I think I’ll pass on the video though. lol