My teenage sons just notice prejudice for the first time.

So, we went to Walmart to by a new I-phone for my 17 year old. I was there with both my boys 17 and 15 year olds. We ask the lady behind the counter (she must have been late teens early 20's) for the I-phones, she looked at us (up and down).

She stated they didn't have any open, and she could show us the box. I told her "Really, we have been buying all our cell phones from this wallmart, from this very counter for about 20 years for the whole family, and that has never been the case."

She then took the phone (still in the box) and held it up behind the counter. She stated she couldn't let us even hold the box, we had to look at it while she held it up because people run with the phone. I should point out, she was polite and smiling the whole time. So I told her "Wait, we can't look at the phone it self, as you don't have any open, and now we can't even hold the box? Because you are afraid I am going to steal it?" (I should point out that I am a 48 year old man and weigh 200 pounds, so if I ran in a Walmart, I wouldn't get very far.)

I told the boys we would go to the T-Mobile store down the street. My younger son had a confused look on his face. As we were talking, and older couple came up to another sales person, and ask for the new phones for their grandson. Well that person had no problem reaching out and handing them the phone.

My older boy was just shaking his head. I told both of the boys "That is what racism feels like in 2013."

This shit needs to stop. Stores are in the business of making money by selling to the largest number of people. Pissing off a high percentage of them for fear of the tiny percentage who steal is a very stupid move. I have a friend who tells me he gets hassled every time he tries to make a return at Best Buy. When I go to Best Buy to make a return, the girl gives me a blowjob for my inconvenience. The shit needs to stop.

You should let corporate know what happened. Wallyworld is awfully paranoid about being seen as racist, and your story will no doubt get their attention.

My first response would most have been "You're a fucking liar.".

This black dude I work with claims that when he is at the bar at Olive Garden (or somesuch place) waiting for a table to open the bartender asks to see his ID though he is clearly well over 21. Yet the young white people don't have to show their ID to get a beer.

I think I see your problem.

Not exactly Bull Connor, fire hoses, and dogs though is it.......

What, the on-the-clock blowjobs?

Well, yes, I suppose it is progress of a sort. Not that that makes it excusable, if it was in fact race-based.

That said, that's not the only possible interpretation. Given that two different employees were involved, it's possible there's some recent store policy that one of them follows slavishly and the other doesn't care about, or some other personal variation. (It could also be age-based, with the assumption that an elderly couple wouldn't do anything, though that would be discrimination as well.)

Well, I've faced direct racial and sex discrimination in the past that hurt me greatly and this is nothing.

Speaking as someone that did once work in retail, I can understand that policy. When I worked at Target we couldn't pull electronics out of the box because people HAVE run off with shit like that.

But discrimination in subtle forms still exists, like jewelry stores directing me and my family to the cheapest section of the store, or the winery my folks visited that would only give them cheap wines to sample.

Perhaps he should've ordered malt liquor.

That's why the good lord invented the Ignore function.

Dayton also shows the good Lord has one hell of a sense of humor.

Heeyyyy, this ain't bad!

Sure you have.

Dayton the victim.

I find myself thinking the same thing or wondering if how they were dressed some how factored into things. Either way though it looks highly suspect to me so I have to wonder if I'm just making excuses because it certainly looks bad on the surface. I also must confess that nothing like that has happened to me, but I am white, so is that white privilege or is it just that I live in a different area? Still, bad customer service like this is just another reason not to shop at Walmart.

My dad got pissed off recently when Trader Joe's refused to sell him a bottle of wine without an I.D. (he's in his 60's). Personally, I'm happy when people card me because it means some people still think I look young.

White privilege. You have no idea of how pervasive it is, until you spend time with blacks. I lived with a middle class black family for about 6 months back when I was in college, and I saw how they were treated by the rest of society, even though the only difference between them and a white family was skin tone. As a clerk at a Stop-N-Rob, I saw blacks get shaken down and arrested for minor shit, while white guys who were so staggeringly drunk that they didn't even know that they'd pissed themselves, were barely given a stern talking to, even though someone had called the law on them for threatening them.

I have to admit I've gotten off with warnings when the cop could have hassled me. Now, about 8 years ago I did get a DUI for being 0.08, which is right on the line, but that's the only legal trouble I have ever gotten into and the judge let me off with the lightest punishment possible (though I did hire a lawyer but I don't think he was worth the money; I basically just paid a fine, went to some classes, and that was it). I have to say that was my own fault because I did have some beers while watching a game and the girl I was dating at the time was making dinner for us, the game went into over time, and she got pissed off about me being late for dinner (when she went to the effort of making it herself), so I was speeding when the cop pulled me over. When he asked me if I had been drinking I said, yes, but I was fine as I weighted X and only had Y drinks, as that's what a cop friend of mine told me to say in such situations. However, what I didn't know is the SDPD had a new policy which required cops to not let people off if they had admitted to drinking anything (you have to do the whole blood, breath, or urine test) where as before the cops had discretion and could let people off if they thought they were "regular people" who were right on the line. I imagine, though I don't know, that the city changed policies out of fear of getting sued since well to do white folks were probably always the ones who got the benefit of discretion while minorities didn't.

Speaking of white privilege, I remember a video I saw on youtube a while back. It showed two young boys doing the exact same thing, cutting the lock on a bike, and when the white boy did it everyone just assumed the white kid had lost his key and was trying to recover his bike but when the black boy did it he was stopped by multiple people (all white) who suspected him of trying to steal someone else's bike. That's a pretty cut and dried case of two young men who are other wise identical (same age, same sex, both well dressed, etc...) getting treated differently because of race.

OK, Dayton, you got me. I want to hear about this mythical white man's burden you've been forced to bare.

Back in the late 1990s, I was interviewed for a position as Insurance Adjuster by State Farm.

The guy looked me in the face and said

"You are my most qualified applicant this hiring cycle and I would like to have you join us.

But I'm under lots of pressure to hire black women right now so we'll have to pass on you this time"

Saw that, too. There's another one with, I think, the same white guy and a cute girl. Same ho-hum reaction to the guy, but most people asked the girl if she needed help. Subtle, but telling.

Dayton, I have a hard time believing that is true. Especially since it would have been a violation of the law in most states (prohibiting discrimination due to sex, race, or national origin).

Prove it.

What Dayton said about job discrimination is VERY common in gub'mint/military jobs. Many jobs/position are almost 100 percent minority. Is it legal? Probably not, but anyone daring to complain is labeled a racist. Launch a formal complaint and it will be shut down outright or given lip service and forgotten.