Black woman returning clothes is told: "You people always do this"

[matcom]

<snip>

An African American woman has sued clothier Bebe Stores for race discrimination, saying that when she tried to return an unused skirt and blouse, the San Francisco store manager accused her of lying because "you people always do this.''

In a U.S. District Court suit, filed Monday, Samantha Allen-Wise, a legal secretary from Oakland, said she was subjected to demeaning and humiliating treatment at the Grant Avenue store last June, including the manager's false allegation to police that Allen-Wise had struck her.

"Retail discrimination is a very widespread problem that no one talks about because minorities are most often the victims,'' said Michael Harris of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, one of Allen-Wise's attorneys. Her suit seeks unspecified damages, including punitive damages, against the company and the store manager.

Bebe's Brisbane headquarters referred an inquiry Tuesday to its general counsel, Craig Walsey, who said the company does not comment on lawsuits. Allen-Wise said in her suit that Walsey told her in July he had investigated her complaint and found no discrimination, but she said he acknowledged that he had not spoken to witnesses, reviewed a police report, or looked at a videotape of the incident.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/06/09/BAG3M72UM01.DTL

[skypilot]

1. How damned stupid...

...must this manager have been to accuse the customer of striking her when she knew full well that there were surveillance cameras in the store? Did she think the police wouldn't bother to watch the tape?

[psychopomp]

5. AND it went down in the SF Bay

Just goes to show that this kind of BS goes down all ACROSS the U.S. Sorry to say that in the 21st Century the struggle continues. Hopefully, the Latin American- and Mexican-American people will work things out with blacks so that they can form a united front against the racist ideology that is so prevelant in our culture.

Black will have to work to build bridges with brown. And though they are the newly most populous "minority group" in the U.S., latinos have yet to seek to form a radicalized conciousness with blacks that will allow both to move forward together.

[AspenRose]

11. Apparently that thought didn't cross her mind

"Allen-Wise said she told Bunfill she would be filing a complaint, and the manager told her to leave the store. Allen-Wise then asked for police to be summoned so she could make a full report, and Bunfill told the arriving officers that the customer had hit her; police rejected the accusation after examining a store videotape, the suit said."

And then to harrass a LEGAL SECRETARY on top of it all. You KNOW she has attorney contacts up the wazoo....

The store manager is an idiot.

[skypilot]

12. And this is the MANAGER.

How low is the bar for regular employees I wonder.

[proud patriot]

2. I have three friends who return stuff all the time

all three are white .

What an insulting thing for that clerk to say .
I hope Samantha Allen-Wise wins her case .

[Wickerman]

3. I know a lawyer who did quite well with a few suits like the one

coming here. Its far too common, even after the 48 hours piece a few years back - which leads one to believe that risk management is more concerned with their prejudicial views toward shrinkage than they are worried about potential lawsuits.

The interesting thing about the aforementioned lawyer is that all he did was initial discovery - then he forwarded the cases to a larger firm that filed class action against unnamed department stores. The awards were huge and his share was significant.

[noonwitch]

4. Was she followed by the security guard?

I ask because I worked in a department store in the 80s. It was a Grand Rapids, small chain of stores called "Steketee's". I was told on my first day to follow around every black person that came into my department. I was enough of a smarty pants to ask if they gave the same instructions to the two black employees (a brother and sister from my school).
K-Mart would have fired me for following black people around, just because they were black. K-Mart's loss prevention program taught us what to look for to single out shoplifters, based on behavior of shoppers.

[underpants]

7. See my post below

Gee wonder if there was anything going on.

[notadmblnd]

9. Victoria Secrects has the same policy

one of my sisters took a job there part time to make extra xmas cash.

[underpants]

6. I had a co-worker in Baltimore who told me about her daughter in retail

She told me about how "they" always steal things and return stuff..."My daughter always was really careful with them and watched them real close.......she caught them all the time". My response was of course, "What did she miss while she was watching them?"

I suspect that if I wanted to steal something I would get a black accomplice to divert attention from me emptying the place.

Geesh!

[skypilot]

8. I'll be your accomplice.

We can go rob Walmart blind. But if you get caught I don't know you.:)

[Susang]

10. The comedian Dick Gregory

Used to do a bit about that. Said he and another black guy would go into a store and the security guys would follow them around. Meanwhile, their two white friends would steal the store blind. They'd meet in the parking lot and split the loot. And this was back in the 60s!

[sus]

14. I follow everyone around when they come in the store.

I don't trust ANY of them.

While the above story is outrageous, "being watched" when you come into a store is to be expected. If you're not doing anything wrong, what's the problem?

[noiretextatique]

15. the problem is offending potential customers

if you don't want their money, there is no problem

[noiretextatique]

13. this is the kind of stupid shit

black people have to deal with all the time.