Form And Retail Racism example essay topic

Racial profiling is present in every facet of American life today. Minority groups, especially African Americans are the primary victims of this deplorable act. The beauty of racial profiling is that in any given incident, its practitioners can always claim that it was just a coincidence that the victim was a minority. Racial profiling is a practice that should be eradicated from the face of earth in all of it's crooked forms. Shopping while black, rather Retail Racism is the discriminatory act of presuming that an individual is a possible criminal based solely on the color of their skin. Lately Retail Racism has been the focus of much legislative and legal action and has been a well-documented topic in the mainstream news media.

The increased buying power of the black middle-class has enabled them to shop in predominately white areas, which allows numerous opportunities for Retail Racism to occur. The large national chains: Eddie Bauer, Avis Rent A Car, and Denny's have all been involved in highly publicized law suits in which black customers have been discriminated against and have received millions of dollars in damages or settlements. Store clerks will either ignore black customers by not offering them sales and assistance or they will focus all of their attention on even the most non-suspicious looking blacks. Chris McGoey, one of the nations leading retail security and theft prevention experts has been hired by many major retailers to cut down on shoplifting incidents for store managers. He has experienced the bigotry first hand, he said that he has found himself in backroom conversations with store managers who say, "People have told me, it's the colored people. The colored people come in, and they steal me blind".

He has also viewed hundreds of hours of video surveillance tape in which time and time again you can see the security guards at the helm of the manually controlled cameras focusing solely on the black customers as soon as they step foot in the store. Even Oprah Winfrey can recount an incident where she was racially profiled. Her worldwide celebrity does not make her exempt from Retail Racism. Oprah and her hair dresser who also happens to be black buzzed in to get into a Madison Avenue shop where they could see white customers and clerks in plain view. It appeared as though the employees were looking right past Oprah and her colleague as if they were invisible because they did not open the door. They eventually walked away and noticed two white women enter and decided to go back and try ringing again, still no response.

She walked across the street to the payphone and called the store to see what was going on and was assured that they were open. She went to the store a third time and started banging on the door and left once again because no one would acknowledge her. When she went back home to Chicago she called the store again and told them who she was and what had happened. The manager apologized and gave her a sorry excuse about two black transsexuals that robbed them last week, that is why they did not let her in the store. Racial Profiling is wrong in any form, and Retail Racism is definitely wrong. Its practitioners should be treated as the rotten criminals they are and be put in jail..