Black Friday Bias: How White Supremacy
Culture Reared its Ugly Head this Holiday Season
Winter 2022
Distinctive Voice Consulting
www.DistinctiveVoiceConsulting.com
“You only had
to wait an extra five minutes,” said the dominant culture/white appearing store employee at a major department store in my home town. I could see the pleading
look in her eyes begging me to let it go. But I wouldn’t. Me and my husband’s
time was just as valuable as the dominant culture/white appearing person’s time
who cut in line.
It started out
as a pleasant shopping trip. My husband and I went to catch some Black Friday
sales at the mall. After selecting our deals from one store, we approached a
check stand with a short line. When we reached the check stand, I noticed a
woman standing off to the side and saw that she was in line so my husband and I
yielded to her and stood behind her. When it was her turn, she approached the
check stand and to our dismay, whipped out three sheets of paper with bar codes
on them and proceeded to try to return or exchange something. The clerk
attempted to help the customer but after several minutes it became increasingly
clear that the customer was not going to be able to accomplish what she set out
to do. My husband and I continued to wait patiently but the thought did cross
my mind, “Who tries to return things on Black Friday?”
After several
more minutes the white appearing employee who I referenced at the beginning of
this story, came to the check-stand and began to help a white appearing customer
who was not in line. My husband and I gave each other a look and he approached
the checker to explain that we had been waiting in line for awhile and should
be next. The checker ignored my husband and continued logging in to her cash
register. My husband then knocked on the counter to get her attention and she
still ignored him. So, I approached the area and joined in to explain that we
were next in line and had been waiting for several minutes. She looked at us
and continued what she was doing.
In the
meantime, the line cutting customer’s eyes were wide with fear but neither the
customer nor the employee made any attempt to right the wrong. They just
ignored the conflict and continued on as if my husband and I did not exist.
Because my husband and I refused to be ignored, the employee finally opened her
mouth to apologize but continued helping the customer. I asked for a manager
and the other checker helping the customer with the return stated that the employee
allowing the line cutting was the manager. My heart sank because she was in a
leadership role, modeling white supremacy culture.
I then thought
of the dynamic, Black man and Black woman customers waiting, white woman
customer and white woman manager being called out on not being fair. The
dynamic brought to mind two points from Tema Okun’s model of White Supremacy Culture
which can be found here: https://www.whitesupremacyculture.info/
The two points that I believe were at play here were: “defensiveness and denial” where the cashier initially denied my husband’s voice when he tried to tell her we were waiting first. The other point I see here from Tema Okun’s model is the “right to comfort and fear of open conflict”. The employee did not want to admit that she was wrong and preferred denying my husband and I fair treatment while she prioritized the white comfort of herself and the white customer. She also demonstrated a fear of open conflict. The entire exchange soured my holiday spirit. After helping the line-cutter the clerk then rang up my husband but I left my purchase items on the counter in protest.
To help prevent
these types of exchanges, i.e., the marginalization of BIPOC people, I started
Distinctive Voice Consulting in 2014 to train community members and business
employees on how to handle these types of interactions. The employee’s reaction
was to ignore us, then apologize, but continue her behavior of helping the
white-appearing customer first. Both white folks had a responsibility: the
employee should have stopped what she was doing, acknowledged that there was a
line, apologized to the person she was helping and asked her to get in line and
wait her turn. The customer should have acknowledged her transgression and followed
the rules of our social construct which is first come-first-serve. But of the
two people, I expected the employee to do the right thing: to be willing to be
uncomfortable by serving the Black customers before the white appearing
customer. This action takes work. It takes training and willingness to look deep
into ourselves to unearth our unconscious bias and to retrain our brains to
avoid white supremacy culture. This is difficult because we have all been indoctrinated
into white supremacy culture in the United States. White supremacy culture is as
invisible as the air we breathe. Unlearning white supremacy culture may feel like
someone is taking our breath away. But it is what needs to happen. I started my
business to help create a world of true equality, help people see their bias,
and awaken people to behaviors, practices and policies that disadvantage some
and advantage others.
To this end, I
have created a new offering to help individuals acknowledge their unconscious bias.
It is called a personal diversity audit. This audit is different than my
institutional audit where I evaluate bias within an organization. With a
personal diversity audit, I provide you with an individual 30 question survey
to assess your bias, equity and inclusion. I have one test for staff and one
test for managers. I have various packages based on all budget types. If you
are interested in a personal diversity audit, an institutional audit for your
business or place of employment, diversity training or having me facilitate conversations
about equity and inclusion, please contact me at DistinctiveVoiceConsulting@gmail.com or visit my website
www.DistinctiveVoiceConsulting.com
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