Video: White store manager follows black teens around a store

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I have never had an argument with you, but I have sure as shit read all of the ignorance you post in threads about racism involving black people.

Hahahahahha, calm down dude. I posted one thing in this thread and you are getting all twisted up. I'm glad you read my posts. I'm glad I've never read yours.
 
Hahahahahha, calm down dude. I posted one thing in this thread and you are getting all twisted up. I'm glad you read my posts. I'm glad I've never read yours.

No one is upset genius. Yes I read all of the stupid racist shit posted in thread about black people.

You not reading my posts is probably why you continue to post the shit you post... that or carrying certain beliefs.
 
I didn't claim you said that. Your statement "Calling out racism when it is not present does not help matters." implies that there was no racial component to this video and no one has a reason to think otherwise.

No, but I can see how you read it that way.

In the video, there is no explicit evidence of racism. So to call it racism, without further investigation, is not useful.

You may suspect that racism is afoot, but I wanna see the receipts before lobbing such accusations around.

I posted a video to show that blacks have been racially profiled while in stores so for people to assume that these kids were being followed because they are black does not mean people are playing the "race card."

That a a trend exists does not mean that this is part of that trend.

Without evidence of the racism, and in light of the equally valid possibility of ageism, and that the video does not contain the beginning of the encounter, this particular video can be dismissed as potentially playing the race card.

I mean, if I were compiling evidence of racist behavior by shopkeepers, this might by the last video I would use.

And again, for anyone having difficulty understanding my meaning or reading my words as written, I do not deny that racist shopkeepers harass minorities.


so basically nothing but white hoods with torches shouting 'die nigger die" qualifies, and only after the alleged hooded racists pass background checks and sarcasm detectors...

lol, exactly!
 
No one is upset genius. Yes I read all of the stupid racist shit posted in thread about black people.

You not reading my posts is probably why you continue to post the shit you post... that or carrying certain beliefs.

I would love to read these racist posts I make. Please, post them. You are labeling me as a racist. You should at least back it up. I'll eat crow if so.
 
If you think about this event in a vacuum, maybe it makes sense to argue, "Well, it could be age and not race."

He's right that we can't know whether racism was what motivated the store manager to follow these teens around the store - but that's true about every single incident when this happens. At some point you have to observe the larger societal context, note the fact that the black (male, especially) experience of being stalked around stores is nigh ubiquitous, and conclude that, yes, it probably is a reasonable position to think that racism was key here. It's certainly not a wild-eyed and irresponsible position to take.

But I'll think about reading the book, Dookkake.
Then it would probably make more sense to have a thread about racial profiling in general and not a "lets get angry at store manager XY" thread.
 
Then it would probably make more sense to have a thread about racial profiling in general and not a "lets get angry at store manager XY" thread.

Yeah, pointing out the failure of this case to prove one thing or another is in no way a dismissal that a racist trend exists.
 
I would love to read these racist posts I make. Please, post them. You are labeling me as a racist. You should at least back it up. I'll eat crow if so.

I am not going to search through all of your nonsense to prove what you are. I have replied to some of your crap if you want to look yourself.

With that being said I am done derailing this thread with you.
 
I am not going to search through all of your nonsense to prove what you are. I have replied to some of your crap if you want to look yourself.

With that being said I am done derailing this thread with you.

Oh, so you are the type that yells that someone is a racist without showing any proof. Kind of like this store manager situation huh? You sir, are a great human being and I'm glad there are people like you out there.
 
Oh, so you are the type that yells that someone is a racist without showing any proof. Kind of like this store manager situation huh? You sir, are a great human being and I'm glad there are people like you out there.

I posted a quote from you agreeing with a video in which a guy called black people "shines" "monkeys" and "The buck dancing shoe shinin' negroes." Like I said, you are more than welcome to look it up.
 
When I was 16 and worked at a grocery store, I went there one day I was off to buy something in the videogame department. I knew all the security guys, but they didn't really know me. They followed me the instant I set foot in the department. One guy stood at the end of the aisle I was in and pretended to be a shopper. I'm white, I was not that young or young looking, and never once did I think I was being followed because of my race. I knew it was just because the security people suspected anyone of being a shoplifter.
 
I posted a quote from you agreeing with a video in which a guy called black people "shines" "monkeys" and "The buck dancing shoe shinin' negroes." Like I said, you are more than welcome to look it up.

Yeah ok. Either that didn't happen, the guy added the video after I posted, or I didn't watch the entire thing. I've never called anyone a monkey or agreed with someone that did. But since you are just stating things without proof, this is pointless.
 
I remember when I was a teenage and me and my mates got followed around a large Woolworths in Belfast, we took the person following us on a merry wander (all over the bottom floor and then the top) and left out of the rear exit and then came back in the front entrance to do it all over again.

Teenagers (especially groups) get followed all the time in stores.
 
Yeah ok. Either that didn't happen, the guy added the video after I posted, or I didn't watch the entire thing. I've never called anyone a monkey or agreed with someone that did. But since you are just stating things without proof, this is pointless.

This is the last time I am going to respond to you. It's in the Zimmerman verdict thread, have a ball. You wrote in the thread quoting the video "some harsh truth."
 
Yeah, pointing out the failure of this case to prove one thing or another is in no way a dismissal that a racist trend exists.

I think the problem with emphasizing the emphasizing the fact that you cannot categorically prove that this specific event was motivated by racial animus / racism / unexamined and unconscious stereotypes is that if you take your misgivings about this individual event and apply them more broadly, then you have this epistemological argument that we can [almost] never know that any given action was motivated by racism. This is why people were viewing your argument as a sort of categorical denialism of the problem; before you clarified your position (and you did it earlier than this post, I know), I actually thought you might be attempting to engage in an AstroLad-esque parody of those sorts of, "Nothing is racist unless someone admits that they were thinking about race, and by talking about race you're the one playing the race card / unnecessarily injecting race into a topic where it is unnecessary to talk about it." I don't really think it's a bad argument or anything; I just think it needs that clarification that it's more of a suggestion against rush to judgment in individual cases than a denial that there's a widespread pattern.

And Kinyou is probably right, but there's no reason we can't talk use this topic as a possible example of a wider phenomenon and talk about it in that way. I've seen people already doing it.
 
All I'm saying is that video of the beginning of this incident, and others, would help a lot to know how big a role racism played.

Also, FWIW, I didn't really clarify anything. I merely stated that which unsaid would be fed to me as a straw man.
 
Yeah but these kids weren't being sneaky or shady at all. At some point they even asked him why he was following them, and were holding out there phone to show that they were recording him. At that point, it's time to realize these kids are probably not thieves and move along. Meanwhile there were probably some other people (perhaps of a lighter skin shade) somewhere else in the store actually stealing while he's wasting his time acting like the ghost from PacMan.

That's a pretty big assumption.

And if the scenario was that he was following them because they were a group of teenagers, and not because of their skin color, then how they look doesn't matter. He was going to follow them regardless, because they were a group of teens with no parents.
 
That's a pretty big assumption.

And if the scenario was that he was following them because they were a group of teenagers, and not because of their skin color, then how they look doesn't matter. He was going to follow them regardless, because they were a group of teens with no parents.

A group? I think I only saw 2 people in that vid.
 
Had this happen to me before. Outright confronted him about it in a non belligerent manner, as he made it painfully clear he was following me. I never brought race up as I didn't really care what the reason was, but it needed to end.
 
This video cracks me up. Sucks to be followed like you're a criminal, but it was clear that the manager knew that they knew they were being followed. The manager should have just gone up to the kids and talked to them a bit. Maybe he would have realized they're not so bad and then left them alone.

I've been followed numerous times in stores like office max and best buy and I'm a pretty normal looking white dude. It sucks, like being hassled by 5 different best buy employees immediately after walking in and walking directly to the VG section, which happens to be just one section from the entrance.

I get followed pretty much every time I go to office max, but one particular time there they decided to follow myself and my two best buds. We realized we were being followed so when we turned the corner in a new aisle we booked it to the other end then hid. It was hilarious watching the lady tailing us scramble to see which aisle we were in.
 
A group? I think I only saw 2 people in that vid.

My point was, if the guy was following them because of their age and not their skin color, he was following them based on that (and not how they looked). But I fully admit that I just don't know. I don't know the manager and his habits. I don't work for him, therefore I don't know why he was following them. This video surely doesn't tell us. If we consider that racism like this is common, we must also consider that managers at stores being suspicious towards teens (and customers based on age regardless of race) is also common. Both are a possibility.

Either way, it doesn't excuse the behavior.
 
I've been with friends not acting so civil in a store before and have been watched kind of like this. I'm white, too.

The guy could be racist, but I wouldn't declare it without hearing his side of the story.
 
I've been followed so much to be honest I don't even notice or let it bother me anymore. When I was younger I had white friends walk right in and steel things knowing that no one would even bat an eye at them, it's almost comical when you think about it.
 
If you think about this event in a vacuum, maybe it makes sense to argue, "Well, it could be age and not race."

He's right that we can't know whether racism was what motivated the store manager to follow these teens around the store - but that's true about every single incident when this happens. At some point you have to observe the larger societal context, note the fact that the black (male, especially) experience of being stalked around stores is nigh ubiquitous, and conclude that, yes, it probably is a reasonable position to think that racism was key here. It's certainly not a wild-eyed and irresponsible position to take.

But I'll think about reading the book, Dookkake.
This line of reasoning is positively frightening.
 
I don't see this as racist. I would probably be following two teenagers dressed like that and acting fishy like that myself. White or black. I can speak from experience that you get told to mostly follow minorities in retail though.
 
I don't see this as racist. I would probably be following two teenagers dressed like that and acting fishy like that myself. White or black. I can speak from experience that you get told to mostly follow minorities in retail though.
Dressed like what? A hoody?
 
Dressed like what? A hoody?

Wearing hoodys and one is wearing a winter hat. They are looking over their shoulders a lot and stopping at random spots.
To clarify: I worked in retail and was trained in loss prevention. Skin color wasn't EVER brought up and I never judged by skin color. In fact, I never quite gave a shit to follow people around unless told to do so.
 
Wearing hoodys and one is wearing a winter hat. They are looking over their shoulders a lot and stopping at random spots.
To clarify: I worked in retail and was trained in loss prevention. Skin color wasn't EVER brought up and I never judged by skin color. In fact, I never quite gave a shit to follow people around unless told to do so.
Are they looking over their shoulder at the guy following them? Are hoodies and hats don't make me think "I need to watch this guy."
 
Are they looking over their shoulder at the guy following them? Are hoodies and hats don't make me think "I need to watch this guy."
If someone is following you, either ignore them or confront them. Plain and simple. Like I said, when I worked retail I was told to follow people wearing sweat gear. White or black. And I also said, I have been followed multiple times for wearing that shit because I wear it often. I hope you aren't considering my opinion on this as me being racist. If you are, I am done arguing with you as there is nothing more to say.
 
Dressed like what? A hoody?
Any large bags or clothing loose enough to conceal merchandise can set off red flags.

At first I couldn't think of why they'd be bothering to follow people in a Grocery, though, (unlike say Best Buy or something similar.) Then I remembered "Duh, Alcohol."
 
Things i look out for


Keep looking around to see if they are being watched

Shit clothes and dirty looking

Carrying a bag (to dump a load of shit in)

Ask me a stupid question (no fucking clue why they do this, maybe to appear legitimate, some have asked questions even after i've seen them stealing but you have to wait untill they leave the store before stopping them)

Liverpool shirt
 
If someone is following you, either ignore them or confront them. Plain and simple. Like I said, when I worked retail I was told to follow people wearing sweat gear. White or black. And I also said, I have been followed multiple times for wearing that shit because I wear it often. I hope you aren't considering my opinion on this as me being racist. If you are, I am done arguing with you as there is nothing more to say.
I've also worked in retail, and I've never been told to treat someone in sweats as suspicious. We were told to notice behavior, not clothes.
 
Things i look out for


Keep looking around to see if they are being watched

Shit clothes and dirty looking

Carrying a bag (to dump a load of shit in)

Ask me a stupid question (no fucking clue why they do this, maybe to appear legitimate, some have asked questions even after i've seen them stealing but you have to wait untill they leave the store before stopping them)

Liverpool shirt
Carrying a bag is a big thing but I remember as a kid I knew a few people who used to go into the dollarama and other grocery stores and tuck a candy bar or a pack of gum in their waist band or pocket, easily.
I've also worked in retail, and I've never been told to treat someone in sweats as suspicious. We were told to notice behavior, not clothes.
Different stores, different training. What can ya do?
 
Things i look out for


Keep looking around to see if they are being watched

Shit clothes and dirty looking

Carrying a bag (to dump a load of shit in)

Ask me a stupid question (no fucking clue why they do this, maybe to appear legitimate, some have asked questions even after i've seen them stealing but you have to wait untill they leave the store before stopping them)

Liverpool shirt
I remember the CVS where I used to live by had anyone who carried a bag put it behind their counter when coming in.

Different stores, different training. What can ya do?
Yeah, a lot of it has to do with what area the store is in too.
 
Sometimes for fun I buy groceries at one store, put them all in a large bag with the receipt, carry the bag into a second grocery store, buy a couple small items, then walk out with all the other groceries clearly in view.

So I'll buy a candy bar, and they can see I've got milk/cereal/etc in the bag, but I don't put those on the conveyor. Just walk out with them.

So far nobody stopped me though (I'm white). I'm also immune to being followed, because I wouldn't even notice it. Racism is not something I have to think about when I don't want to.
 
Sometimes for fun I buy groceries at one store, put them all in a large bag with the receipt, carry the bag into a second grocery store, buy a couple small items, then walk out with all the other groceries clearly in view.

So I'll buy a candy bar, and they can see I've got milk/cereal/etc in the bag, but I don't put those on the conveyor. Just walk out with them.

So far nobody stopped me though (I'm white).

This is what you do for fun?
 
Baggy hoodies, of course he'd follow them around.

If they don't want to be followed around don't dress like that. ffs.
 
Lol @ but I got followed once and I'm white! W-H-I-T-E! This has NOTHING to do with race!

Yeah, except it's pretty common for managers at grocery stores to actually be suspicious of teenagers, regardless of skin color. But let's ignore that and not take into consideration .
 
Yeah, accept it's pretty common for managers at grocery stores to actually be suspicious of teenagers, regardless of skin color. But let's ignore that. It must be racism.

As the past has shown, it is pretty common for blacks to be followed around for no reason other than the fact that they're black. But let's ignore that. It can't possibly be racism.
 
When I was 16 and worked at a grocery store, I went there one day I was off to buy something in the videogame department. I knew all the security guys, but they didn't really know me. They followed me the instant I set foot in the department. One guy stood at the end of the aisle I was in and pretended to be a shopper. I'm white, I was not that young or young looking, and never once did I think I was being followed because of my race. I knew it was just because the security people suspected anyone of being a shoplifter.

This video cracks me up. Sucks to be followed like you're a criminal, but it was clear that the manager knew that they knew they were being followed. The manager should have just gone up to the kids and talked to them a bit. Maybe he would have realized they're not so bad and then left them alone.

I've been followed numerous times in stores like office max and best buy and I'm a pretty normal looking white dude. It sucks, like being hassled by 5 different best buy employees immediately after walking in and walking directly to the VG section, which happens to be just one section from the entrance.

I get followed pretty much every time I go to office max, but one particular time there they decided to follow myself and my two best buds. We realized we were being followed so when we turned the corner in a new aisle we booked it to the other end then hid. It was hilarious watching the lady tailing us scramble to see which aisle we were in.

I've been with friends not acting so civil in a store before and have been watched kind of like this. I'm white, too.

The guy could be racist, but I wouldn't declare it without hearing his side of the story.

And I'm black, 27-years-old, been driving for 12 years and have never been pulled over. Not once in my life. EVER.

And this means absolutely NOTHING in the grand scheme of things. Your personal experience doesn't invalidate (or make less true) a worldwide problem.

Lol @ but I got followed once and I'm white! W-H-I-T-E! This has NOTHING to do with race!

This.
 
As the past has shown, it is pretty common for blacks to be followed around for no reason other than the fact that they're black. But let's ignore that. It can't possibly be racism.

Again, if we accept that both are common things, then how can we say that this video is proof of either? We don't know the managers past habits, and this video shows us nothing to suggest it's one or the other. I don't think we should dismiss it as racism, or not talk about it as such. But I still don't think we should be saying 100% that this guy is racist, and when we don't know.

We should be talking about how the act in itself (following customers around) - is stupid. In both cases.
 
As the past has shown, it is pretty common for blacks to be followed around for no reason other than the fact that they're black. But let's ignore that. It can't possibly be racism.

Sure, it could be racism motivating the "manager" in that video. But it's pure confirmation bias at work if you conclude it must be racism. Plenty of people in this thread have given a reasonable alternative explanation. You seem unwilling to even concede the possibility of another reason.

Edit: I take it back. You just posted that the video isn't proof. You're correct.
 
Again, if we accept that both are common things, then how can we say that this video is proof of either? We don't know the managers past habits, and this video shows us nothing to suggest it's one or the other. I don't think we should dismiss it as racism, or not talk about it as such. But I still don't think we should be saying 100% that this guy is racist, and when we don't know.

We should be talking about how the act in itself (following customers around) - is stupid. In both cases.

Logic dictates that your closing sentence should be how most people view the situation. Some people have an agenda to push though.
 
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