Comments on: An Open Letter To Racial Profilers

By: free online poker

free online poker — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 15:39:58 +0000

By: Kryten Syxx

Kryten Syxx — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 17:28:50 +0000

Wal*Mart isn’t the only large retail chain that racially profiles exiting shoppers. In the late 90′s I worked for a normal Target store in Tampa. Usually once or twice a day the alarm would go off when someone left the store. The only time the security staffer would ask to see the person’s bag was if they were anything but white. It is fair to say that a majority of our shoppers were middle to upper class whities. Still, the statistics do not make profiling right.

I’ve had 3 occasions where my bag would go off when I purchased games or electronics from Targets. If they went off I would just go to customer service and have to verify my items and try to deactivate the security tags again. NOT ONCE did the security guard ask me to step back inside and open my shopping bag. Now, I don’t dress like the middle class white guy that I am. I wear beat up jean shorts, a shirt from t-shirt hell, and a Mudvayne hat. I guess if I was darker I would be in so much trouble.

By: abigail

abigail — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 13:24:10 +0000

Great work buddy! You’ve done a brilliant job to raise the racial profiling subject in this way.

By: Suzy

Suzy — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 04:06:58 +0000

I get your point about racial profiling, but please leave John Walker Lindh out of it. His father, Frank Lindh, recently broke his silence of 4 1/2 years to tell Lindh’s story (http://www.alternet.org/story/31211/) and it is sickening. Billed in the media as “American Taliban” and reviled as a terrorist, ultimately the only charge prosecutors were able to make stick was that Lindh violated the economic sanctions President Clinton had imposed against the Taliban. He was really guilty of being a stupid kid, and for that he nearly died, was tortured by his American captors (if you can believe that, I say wholly sarcastically) and was sentenced to spend 20 years of his life in prison. Lindh was an early victim of the post-9/11 hysteria that gripped even some people who should have known better. Please treat him with more kindness.

By: Kamachanda

Kamachanda — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 23:51:37 +0000

Locally, one of the Walmarts stopped an older white male when he set off the alarm. There was a sensor in his sweat-suit. He said he’d purchased it the day before, but they claimed it was stolen and set him home in his underwear. He showed up the next day with the reciept and his lawyer. He can buy a lot of sweats now….
Everybody sing the Walmart song:
Walmart Walmart uber alles, uber alles, uber alles….

By: Marcus

Marcus — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 18:01:48 +0000

Regarding the Walmart comments:

I work right next to a Mall in suburban Massachusetts. I’ll often go over there during my lunch break. Middle Aged White Women are robbing the Mall blind ALL THE TIME. They set off the alarms but no one does anything. If some who was darker skinned or younger set off the alarms, I’m sure they’d be stopped.

By: Bella

Bella — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 17:37:20 +0000

On the Walmart thing — I have noticed that myself. A white, middle aged, middle class woman like myself never gets stopped. But people who look like they’re lower-income often do — white or otherwise.

By: Mark Spittle

Mark Spittle — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 16:27:27 +0000

What a great week for Talent Show. Two of the best blog entries ever, in as many days. Great work, Greg.

By: metricpenny

metricpenny — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 13:28:09 +0000

Thanks for bringing some logic to the racial profiling subject. It is amazing how many people believe only brown-skinned males are criminals.

There is a Wal-Mart near my home that stops every non-white shopper leaving the store to check receipts against parcels. The whites are stealing them blind.

By: greg

greg — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 05:25:53 +0000

It wasn’t meant to be an exhaustive list, guys.