Last summer I was at Best Buy and had an unfortunate racial encounter. (If you’re thinking, “Well, your first mistake was going to Best Buy,” I can’t argue with that. They email me a $5 “reward certificate” every few months, and I just can’t resist the urge to sample the old-fashioned brick-and-mortar experience.) There was a Black guy with a bunch of facial tattoos staring at me as I approached the DVD section. I briefly made eye contact and half-smiled in an attempt at politeness.
I didn’t think much of it. My time was spent slowly wending my way through the toy, DVD and gaming aisles in the middle of the store. I saw the guy a few more times as I wandered, but I still didn’t think much of it. I found a Super Mario Bros. Lego figure for my nephew and took it to the checkout area, but my reward certificate couldn’t be applied to it because the price (before taxes) was $4.99. So I went back and found another Lego toy for $9.99.
On my way back to checkout with the $9.99 Lego kit, the guy walks by me and says something to the effect of, “I don’t appreciate being followed. You made this a very unpleasant experience for me.” I wasn’t looking at him as he spoke, so I wasn’t even sure if he was talking to me. But it seemed like I was the only one he could’ve been talking to. Dumbfounded, I looked at his back as he walked toward the exit. A White woman looked inquiringly at him and then me. I gave her a confused look to indicate that I didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about.
I would’ve liked to reassure him that I wasn’t an undercover security guard tracking him, but I was afraid to contradict him. I thought it might set him off. He was clearly in a bad mood. He was being paranoid, but it’s a well-founded paranoia. I’m sure he’s been followed around stores by security guards many times. But this time it was all in his head (unless there was someone else following him around. Who knows? Maybe I was an unwitting decoy for an actual security guard.).
Well, I know I’m not “The Victim” here, but it was just so fuckin’ frustrating. I felt like the Bad Guy even though I’d done nothing wrong. Could I have said something to disabuse him? Maybe, but likely not. It’s not like I was prepared for the accusation or quick enough on my feet to come up with a witty rejoinder. I think I just have to accept that I got winged by Racism and move on. (For the record, I have moved on. I wrote this shortly after it happened. It just took me until now to polish it off and post it.)
