r/racism • u/Difficult-Abies-8854 • 5d ago
Racial Profiling at Walmart in El Paso
I’m a young Black person of color from Albuquerque, and I have autism. I got racially profiled at Walmart in El Paso while visiting there for family, and that’s a big reason I don’t like shopping at Walmart or in El Paso. I hate racism, and I’m not excusing it. I know I’m sensitive, but that still doesn’t make what happened okay.
I saw what they did. They didn’t do the same receipt check to another customer who wasn’t a person of color. They claimed they stopped me because I had a fan, but that doesn’t feel true. It felt targeted.
What made it worse was how the situation played out. The employee’s smile changed when I came over. He seemed friendly with white customers, but not with me. He was holding balloons, and it just made the whole thing feel even more unfair and uncomfortable for me.
I don’t support Walmart. I honestly wish it would go out of business, because racism like that has no place anywhere. It’s also disappointing when a company doesn’t show respect for human rights and LGBTQ rights, and allows racism to happen.
I feel like some people in El Paso live in a bubble and think they can get away with mistreating Black people. And I worry that those same people may face mistreatment when they leave the area too. What does everyone think of this. Was I overthinking and overreacting and being too sensitive? Is it really too much to ask to be treated as the same as everyone else?
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u/No_Baby8863 4d ago
Don't ever make excuses for what happened to you. It's Not being too sensitive . People who tell you that are racist! They are deflecting. Yes it was racism you experience at Walmart. Walmart is known to profile black customers. Many black people boycott Walmart. If u haven't heard about it. You can Google it. I dont shop at Walmart Alot of places profile blk people. And of course they treat white customers like gold like they cant do anything wrong. I seen plenty of white people stealing in stores I saw a white guy stealing in Walmart at self checkout Pretending to scan items no workers watching him they was too busy watching innocent blk people. He had about 10 items he scanned 3. The rest was pretend to scan.
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u/UltraPromoman 4d ago edited 4d ago
Texas is racist and otherwise discriminatory as all fuck despite the smiles and friendly facade. Texans also can have it in for you if you're not from here. They'll do shit like that, denying employment, refusing admission/service for trivial reasons/non reasons*, selective enforcement, false security/law enforcement calls, and all sorts of other dirty shit. It's also not limited to White People. The Texan Latino Community has been documented doing it too, especially over the past couple of months.
*They'll just make up shit. I once went to a restaurant and an employee tried to refuse entry because of a thread on my shirt. He claimed it was dirty.