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.
I’d tell him to add his items to mine and buy them for him. If the cashier refused I would make them explain why to me.
I like this. This is the mentality I plan to take with me in case of future situations. I feel terrible that I wasn’t present enough to act appropriately in the moment.
Yea, you should have spoken up. This is complete bullshit.
Thank you. You don’t think that speaking up would be more embarrassing for the man that what already happened? I feel terrible that I didn’t act more appropriately in the moment, but I was too shocked to think of a good response to the situation.
I don’t know the answer to that. But if he didn’t speak up for himself I would have done so for him. Racism is unacceptable.
Yeah! You obviously know what’s better for him than he does about himself.
Homie might have severe anxiety and then you throwing gas on the fire would make it way worse.
My fucking heart rate is up just thinking about it
My impulse would be to say something like, “excuse me, but the gentleman behind me is still waiting in line!” in a loud enough voice to draw a bit of attention. Gives the cashier space to pretend they didn’t notice him while letting him know you noticed that shit and you’re not OK with it. Also gives other cashiers and patrons nearby the opportunity to be cool and let him jump in line or help him on another lane. As long as it’s focused on the rude behavior of closing a lane without ringing up everyone in the queue, hopefully not too embarrassing for the poor dude behind you.
That cashier was a fucking dickhead. Not your fault you didn’t react in the heat of the moment, that would catch me off guard too!
Call them out on it. “Do you have a reason why you needed to close this line and not serve him?” Then be ready to walk out, or take a pic of the cashier and send an email to corporate for the store.
Buying the guy’s stuff could be classy, or it could be demeaning depending on if he can see you as an ally.
I’d be damn willing to walk out and let them put all the stuff back while I go somewhere else.
And what do you do with your outrage when it had nothing to do with who was in line and everything to do with the employee having an exactly 12-minute long scheduled break and the time is already running?
Have a 12-minute long argument with them, making sure they don’t get to their break?
And how would you know this was racist?
Registers get closed dozens of times a day in a supermarket, no matter who is in line.
Unless you’re implying that black people should be treated differently than other customers? That registers should never be closed if there’s a black person in line? That would pretty much constitute racism — as positive discrimination is still discrimination.
Have you ever worked in a grocery store?
Did the cashier give off body language suggesting they closed the line due to not liking the guy behind you?
I don’t know under what circumstances a cashier might open a line only briefly, but I often realize I forgot something right when I start an activity.
But yeah, if they caught a glimpse of the guy behind you and then closed down in a pissy way, I’d probably start by offering to be a supporting voice during a complaint to the store management. If it’s any kind of pattern, the cashier will likely be out of a job.
I see cashiers at aldi open and close lanes after just a little bit all the time. Aldi workers don’t just work the register, they manage stock and cleaning as well. So at my aldi there’s usually one person on a register but they frequently radio for someone else to come when the line starts to back up. The second person was presumably in the middle of another task, and they don’t stick around at all when the backup is cleared. That sometimes means throwing the closed sign on the belt even if someone is approaching the lane.
I personally wouldn’t ascribe motive to the cashiers actions, but I wasn’t there and don’t really have any context.
i would have let the cashier scan all my items, put them in bags, then without paying or taking the bags, walked away. if they want to pull some racist bullshit, they can take some bullshit.
Now how would you do that in OP’s case?
He had already paid and they shut the line down behind him
