Ask Lemmy

26707 readers

1426 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics.

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

109

What would you have done? White guy observing anti-black racism. (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

65 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 53 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Coming from my experience working in retail, unless the guy had Aryan Nation tats, more likely than not this guy was working in a severely understaffed store.

He was probably in the middle of doing a shitton of time sensitive tasks before he was interrupted by some bullshit manager that told him to help out with the checkout line and then get back to doing the million other things he needed to do before his shift was over.

He was probably doing the bare minimum to be able to say "yes, I helped out the checkout line like you said" before getting back to more important things.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 months ago

Yeah, I've worked retail too and I don't think I would have done this, even if I did have another task to complete.

This cashier's lane light was on. They smiled at me, came to help, scanned my items, and let me pay. Then, rather than scanning the man's six items, they put up their closed sign and walked away without saying a word while leaving their lane light on. It felt hostile and rude.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

Yeah, I've never even worked in retail and my first thought was "sounds like that guy's shift ended five minutes ago".

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

This, people are reaching.