Black Friday Bias: How White Supremacy Culture Reared its Ugly Head this Holiday Season

Winter 2022 

By Kimberly Harris, M.Ed.

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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