I’m a white guy from a fairly non-diverse city. I was at a grocery store today where a cashier opened up their line to serve me and, I thought, the person behind me. As they were serving me, though, they put up their lane closed sign right in front of the black man behind me. The buy was just trying to purchase some tuna, bread, and peanut butter.
The cashier basically decided to serve me, a middle class white man, but refused to serve the black man behind me. I was so shocked that I didn’t say anything. It is possible that I misunderstood the situation but it seemed so blatant.
What should I have done in this situation? Should I have spoken up? Would that have just been more embarrassing for the man who was being discriminated against?
Honestly, I’m still just in shock to see someone treated so poorly when they were simply trying to buy food for themselves. I recognize that means that I’m sheltered but I also feel like I should be able to use my unearned privilege to help others who are being discriminated against.
If it was just the one person, and only those three items, I’d just tell them to chuck them on and I’ll grab it to save the hassle. I honestly wouldn’t have considered racism as a factor, just that the checkout person was being a proper cunt, so taking their win away is a win-win for everyone on the other side of the counter. The appropriate thing for staff to do is pass the closed sign and ask the guy behind you to put it down, so he’s the last.
But if there was still a line, often that happens because the person is long due for break and busting or hungry, and every time they try close more people pull in. So you could be looking into it too much if that’s the case.