Video: White store manager follows black teens around a store

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I dont think this is a race issue, its pretty common practice to follow unsupervised teenagers when they walk into grocery/department stores for a bunch of different reasons. Its gotten even more common now in grocery because of kids doing the milk throwing thing.

Obviously because the kids are black people will throw a fit, but managers at these places follow pretty much all teenagers when they are not with a parent. This becomes even more true if there are more then one, and if they are carrying things like backpacks.

kirblar said:
Publix is a grocery store chain - I know they operate in Florida, dunno how far widespread they are though.
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Publix is now located in Florida, Georgia, Tennesee, South Carolina, Alabama, and they are starting expansion into North Caroline next year. Lp related following is very common at Publix.
 
kirblar said:
Because "Racism was key here" is not a reasonable position to take.

There is a store manager here following kids around. The kids believe it's because they're black. The store manager is white.

We have no way of knowing if this is racially motivated. That would require a singularly overtly racist incident, or a pattern of behavior in order to judge it on. We have neither. We know the south has racial tensions, which are almost certainly informing the kids' judgement. And certainly, it lurks as a potential issue here, but it's not something we can definitively say yes or no on.

This isn't abnormal behavior from a manager or LP associate who are worried about theft. To arrest someone, at least where I was working previously, you would need to see a shoplifter both hide the item AND see the person try to leave with it. Hence, the tailing. The manager has obviously made a wrong guess - but it's his job to guess. You're going to have false alarms, and that's part of the day's work.

The issue with declaring "yeah, it's racism" is to essentially say: "Because this man is white, and they are black, it's racism." Systemic racism is most definitely a huge issue. Judging people solely by the color of their skin is gross. But calling this manager's behavior out as "obviously racist behavior" essentially is doing the exact same thing in reverse. That's why I find it so frightening - you're essentially condoning reciprocity of bad behavior.
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I think I was sympathetic to your point until we got there.
 
When I was younger I used to get followed quite often.
I am white.
Guess what, I was in Circle K yesterday and watched two black kids steal a lighter right out in front of the register right in front of me. I started laughing at them because it was so just blatant.
It happens.
Kids steal.
Black kids steal.
White kids steal.
It has been going on since the beginning of time.
 
As someone who used to work in a publix with a store manager like that...this doesn't surprise me. Our manager used to even watch my department through one of the store displays because we had a primarily minority crew.
 
LOL at the white boys thinking it's equivalent because they got followed once.


Imagine it happening every single time you go, without fail, no matter how much you're a regular customer, how well you dress, or how well you act, just because of your skin color.

This is what a black person has to deal with. It happens to white folk at random. It happens to black folk because the store management are racist pricks. The experience is not equivalent, and stop pretending it is.

We stopped shopping at one of our local store chains for the longest time because they followed around our black friends constantly. We changed their store theme from the commercials to "There's a racist smile in every aisle".

vikki said:
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.
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Did you seriously use "white people get followed too" with stores that have a policy to have aggressive employees?
 
kirblar said:
Do you have a problem with this behavior regardless of if race played a role?
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Not sure what your question is supposed to mean here but you said yourself judge ones by their actions and not by their skin color. The manager trailer the black teens in the store was tailed by the manager who decided to single them out. They drew a conclusion based on the mans actions
 
FyreWulff said:
LOL at the white boys thinking it's equivalent because they got followed once.


Imagine it happening every single time you go, without fail, no matter how much you're a regular customer, how well you dress, or how well you act, just because of your skin color.

This is what a black person has to deal with. It happens to white folk at random. It happens to black folk because the store management are racist pricks. The experience is not equivalent, and stop pretending it is.

We stopped shopping at one of our local store chains for the longest time because they followed around our black friends constantly. We changed their store theme from the commercials to "There's a racist smile in every aisle".



Did you seriously use "white people get followed too" with stores that have a policy to have aggressive employees?
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What state/province do you live in?
 
Infinite said:
Not sure what your question is supposed to mean here but you said yourself judge ones by their actions and not by their skin color. The manager trailer the black teens in the store was tailed by the manager who decided to single them out. They drew a conclusion based on the mans actions
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And because the man was white.
 
PumpkinPie said:
And if there were a gang of hoody-wearing white kids in the shop he probably would've followed them. I don't see how America can get over their race issues if people keep playing the race card for every non-issue.
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Really. The only offensive people in this situations are the one like the OP who are posting inflammatory drivel like this. Welcome to my ignore list OP.
 
Infinite said:
I would blame the managers actions on a prejudice or bias
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Again, do you have a problem with management/LP following people they view as potential shoplifters as a rule? It's their job to protect their store's assets. They're supposed to guess. Will they be wrong? Of course. But they'd much rather be wrong.
 
kirblar said:
Again, do you have a problem with management/LP following people they view as potential shoplifters as a rule? It's their job to protect their store's assets. They're supposed to guess. Will they be wrong? Of course. But they'd much rather be wrong.
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Yes because it leads to stuff like this where your intent may have been to protect your store but the impact is viewed as something other than which then brings negative attention to your business and loss of customers. There's more efficient ways I think in keeping an eye out for thieves than deliberately tailing a set of people that walked into your store based on conscious or subconscious profiling.
 
Infinite said:
Yes because it leads to stuff like this where your intent may have been to protect your store but the impact is viewed as something other than which then brings negative attention to your business and loss of customers. There's more efficient ways I think in keeping an eye out for thieves than deliberately tailing a set of people that walked into your store based on conscious or subconscious profiling.
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Here's the issue: to confront someone for shoplifting, at least in the jurisdictions where I worked - you needed to both see them conceal the merchandise AND try to leave the store with it without paying. Otherwise, you have potential for a massive s-storm if you confront someone with no stolen merchandise on them. At a grocery store, I can see it looking a little silly, but when you get farther up the chain (stores like Best Buy, for instance) the price of inaction is quite a bit higher.
 
boiled goose said:
This thread is depressing.
Male white privilege 101
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Cant have White male privilege when your not white.

It's very difficult from a reasonable perspective to assume racism in this instance, because it is common practice in just about all retail establishments. If teenagers walk in the door in pairs, or more without parental supervision you keep an eye on them. Its become more , and more common as kids choose to follow popular internet pranks like Milk Smashing, so as someone who has worked in retail most of my life, what this manager was doing is what most in his place would have reguardless of factors outside of protecting company assets.
 
boiled goose said:
This thread is depressing.
Male white privilege 101
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Its depressing because we don't see racism? No, we should automatically assume that racist manager was stalking the innocent teens. No, we shouldn't possibly consider a bunch of teens wearing hoodies and in a group entering a store without parents are up to no good.

in my time in retail the people most likely to steal are teens. Stereotyping shop lifters based on race is hilariously naive because all races shop lift. The most common type are just normal people.

've seen a mom have her kids steal things while she distracted the employees.

I've seen a sharply dressed business man steal.

We're taught not to stereotype. We suspect anyone, but, teens are the most likely to steal. Could this manager be a racist? Yes, he could be anything, he may even be secretly a pervert watching them from afar. All we know is theirs a manager following some kids around.
 
kirblar said:
Here's the issue: to confront someone for shoplifting, at least in the jurisdictions where I worked - you needed to both see them conceal the merchandise AND try to leave the store with it without paying. Otherwise, you have potential for a massive s-storm if you confront someone with no stolen merchandise on them. At a grocery store, I can see it looking a little silly, but when you get farther up the chain (stores like Best Buy, for instance) the price of inaction is quite a bit higher.
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this makes perfect sense tbh
 
Public has a shitload of cameras, there's no need to harras anyone by following them around like that.

Fuck that manager.
 
kaepernickehs said:
Public has a shitload of cameras, there's no need to harras anyone by following them around like that.

Fuck that manager.
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This is how it was when I worked at Albertson's. Security or the off duty cop would call us into the security office and we would literally sit there and watch the offender walk around the store stealing shit, laughing our asses off. Then they would get confronted.
 
kaepernickehs said:
Public has a shitload of cameras, there's no need to harras anyone by following them around like that.

Fuck that manager.
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You would be surprised how many of those cameras are fake. If you notice there are also allot of low traffic areas in most stores where they do not install cameras at all, these areas are were people go to hide what they are stealing.

Your also not allowed to install cameras in bathrooms, which is also a popular place to go in order to steal shit. When you walk onto private property the busniess has a right to protect their assets. If your not a fan of that, then do not shop there. Again though, this is standard practice for just about all major retailers.
 
Timedog said:
If people are annoyed when people call out something as racist that is not 100% verified as racist, and that somehow leads them to not address "real" racism when it occurs, they are probably racist and looking for an excuse to shrug their shoulders.
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No, dude, I have to disagree.

There are people who are more-or-less nice and fair, but also ignorant. They mean well and are possible to educate. That said, when a suspect incident is touted as being racist, particularly as in this case, with nary a shred of evidence, it becomes sort of like "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." Over the long run, it is tiring and confusing.

Nice people can stop caring when confronted with such noise. Given that whites are such a majority, it might behoove those that wish whites to behave more progressively to avoid turning off even a sliver of such potentially nice or useful people. This does not mean softening the message or catering it to white people. It just means adhering to standards of evidence before throwing accusations.
 
kaepernickehs said:
Public has a shitload of cameras, there's no need to harras anyone by following them around like that.

Fuck that manager.
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Retail employees are trained to follow suspicious people to prevent stealing. Cameras don't discourage shoplifting like a body on the ground does oddly enough,
 
kaepernickehs said:
Public has a shitload of cameras, there's no need to harras anyone by following them around like that.

Fuck that manager.
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Do you know how easy it is to get around the cameras?
Not only that but half of the domes you see are empty and there for show.
Take it from someone who had some issues with stickey fingers when he was a teen.
 
MIMIC said:
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.



This.
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I'm not trying to say that the manager wasn't following them because they are black. I don't know why the manager was following them. I imagine that all black people in America have had to deal with racism at some point, whether it be overt or subtle. I stated that I was white because I wanted to show that all walks of life get followed, but that doesn't invalidate that the manager very well could have been following these kids because they are black.

I wonder if the manager knows he is online. How does he feel being put on blast like that? He does look pretty silly just turning the corner and being caught.
 
From looking at the video, I'd say that it's a huge assumption to immediately label this a race issue - also unfair on the store manager by implying that there were more malicious undertones.

I mean, if I saw a group of kids walking around holding a mobile phone up above their heads then I'd probably get suspicious too :P
 
teens with hoodys=Automatic suspects Happened to me when I was a chavvy kid with all me tracksuits and shit, I don't see an issue


I don't think it's racially motivated, but It's impossible to know....I highly doubt it
 
How's about this theory in the youtube comments? This one makes sense to me.

SethMcFartlane 1 hour ago
He was following him because he thought it was Soulja Boy, but he was too shy to ask for his autograph.
 
Count Dookkake said:
No, dude, I have to disagree.

There are people who are more-or-less nice and fair, but also ignorant. They mean well and are possible to educate. That said, when a suspect incident is touted as being racist, particularly as in this case, with nary a shred of evidence, it becomes sort of like "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." Over the long run, it is tiring and confusing.

Nice people can stop caring when confronted with such noise. Given that whites are such a majority, it might behoove those that wish whites to behave more progressively to avoid turning off even a sliver of such potentially nice or useful people. This does not mean softening the message or catering it to white people. It just means adhering to standards of evidence before throwing accusations.
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So it's understandable for white people to not care about racism for the illogical reason you've given, but not understandable for black people to call out something that the vast majority of them have faced to a much larger degree than the majority of whites due to their race...as racist.

That's odd.
 
I used to work in retail at Blockbuster, and the only time either me or one of the managers followed/kept an eye on somebody in the store was that they have either stolen in the past, or got a call from one of our other stores in the area to keep an eye out for a person of this description. That is the only defense I could come up with for this guy. it is also incredibly hard to successfully apprehend a suspect for shoplifting. So one of the only defenses we had was to keep an eye on them, and for them to know that we are watching.

At Lowe's, there was an actual loss prevention team on staff at all times, and have seen a number of people get caught.
 
when I was a young punk teenager I was with my friends at a high end mall in N waiting for one of our mothers. She was a mall security guard and we were waiting for her to finished work so she could drive us home. Turns out she walked in on another security guard following us around with cameras because we looked suspicious. we were all white and grimy punk/metal kids. I was told she lost her shit on the dude.
 
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