In today's paper is a story that is both frightening and shocking. Remember that we live in a major metropolitan area composed primarily of Yankee transplants (my family being one of them). So I would guess that discrimination happens less here than elsewhere in the south partly because of that.
We are also very racially diverse. You can see evidence of that in the malls, where there are bi-racial couples and children always walking about. You can see it in the clubs and anywhere you go. As most of you know, a couple of my best friends are of different races (black, hispanic), the Other Half is of a different race, and my next door neighbor (and the Other Half's best friend) is 100% American Indian who "made it good" through hard work (the American Dream).
No, I'm not some wild-eyed liberal indulging in a great social experiment. This is the year 2005, and it's common here! If you wanted to avoid the other races, I suppose you could, but it would be exceedingly difficult.
But here is a chilling story of discrimination, if it's accurate. For many years, the GAF Materials Corp. in Tampa had handed out $14,000 (yes - $14,000!!!) of WalMart gift cards to their employees every year at Christmas. They had always sent their white secretary, who was on vacation this year. So, a black business executive was sent instead.
He called in the order ahead of time, got the accounting department to issue an official company check, and went to WalMart to complete a (supposedly) easy transaction. Instead, WalMart stalled him for a couple hours after asking for all kinds of identification and the police were called (who grabbed him roughly and said they were there to talk about his check forgery).
The police say, "hey - don't look at us! WalMart made the allegations! We were just following up!" Yeah...OK. If it's an allegation, wouldn't it be wise to handle the investigation more discreetly? Anyway, in 20 minutes, the cops told WalMart that he could go.
As for WalMart, they're racing about trying to cover their butts just as fast as their little legs can carry them. Everyone's apologized...except for the store itself.
And this year, GAF Materials Corp is handing out Target gift cards instead!
P.S. Check out JibJab's hillarious tribute to WalMart.
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27 comments:
What a farce. Apparantly, as the article says, no one from the store called to apologize. My theory there is that they were told to clam up because they handled it so poorly in the first place. The "professionals" took over to limit the damage.
Wal-Mart will be sued on this one. Rightfully so. They'll settle out-of-court because they're wrong.
I agree with Fred. This is shameful if true. Can you imagine the impact that this will have nationwide. Potentially a whole lot of business for Walmart to lose because of stupidity and arrogance.
I am not much for the "sue them" mentality, but they NEED to learn a big lesson.
I told you a while ago about our experience with CompUSA and why we will NEVER shop there again. Wal-Mart's been on shaky ground, but I've just added them to our BANNED list.
Polanco, I don't recall the CompUSA experience? Where's that post? Yeah, I've been avoiding Wal "The Big Box" Mart for some time now.
Kathleen, it's funny how WalMart keeps getting repeatedly sued for age, race, and sex discrimination, isn't it?
Fred, I think you're right. Damage Control has stepped in.
Wow - how horrible. It's amazing the amoung of discrimination still out there in theis day and age - I'm multi-racial - I see it still quite a bit, I work in a small town, they're a little backwards at times.... People's ignorance still shocks me.
This kind of mess breaks my heart. How sad. Fred said it better then I could.
Lava, there is a saying that ignorance is supposed to be bliss, but that's bull. Ignorance cost and it hurts. But I am way pass shocked by it, because incidents like these are so common.
That's just sick....
My heart hurts for that man:(
Walmart and the employees that dealt with that man should be on their knees sincerely begging for his forgiveness.
I've already boycotted WalMart because of a lot of their practices. It does NOT surprise me that they would discriminate against blacks. Sad, but that's what I think about them.
Right on TARGET!!
Did I really say that? I am sooo embarassed *L*
I always shop Target. Everytime WalMart is in the news it is for something bad.
I just hope this isn't true. (So, why do I believe it is?)
Old Hoss, I know. The only argument I've heard is that perhaps the black executive was attempting to provoke the situation in some way. But my thought is... why? It makes no sense. I mean, even if you're trying to stir things up and make a story, why have the potential to drag your company through it all, too? So, I think it's genuine. Sadly.
Michelle, isn't that the truth???
Mallory, ;o)
TLP, well, at least they're...er...consistent...
Jamie Dawn, they'd never do it because it would be construed as a tacit admission of guilt and make a lawsuit SO much easier. More's the pity though, that we shelve what we ought to do in the face of what is felt we need to do.
Ms. L mine too...
FTS, very, very true.
Liquid Plastic, I find it so hard to believe that incidents like this are common. But I hear this sort of thing about WalMart all the time!!!?
Lava, I know. It's strange, isn't it? I remember your brother telling a story about a girl who rejected him when she found out he had some black blood in him (she couldn't tell just by looking). What a wretched thing to do. The only good thing about that was that he was able to move on and find someone less shallow.
Storm, if WalMart keeps this up, Target will be rolling in the money! In fact, if I was Target, I would start paying people to go in there and tempt the Wallies to do stupid stuff. The payoff's huge!
TC, yup! You and I see eye-2-eye
Wow, force stores to accept checks. That would certainly take a bite out of shoplifting. I don’t even accept checks from whites. This is one of those double-edged swords. The Diversity Relations Manger trains the front line people to give blacks whatever they want and the Loss Prevention Manager is preaching that 75% of all checks written in the retail sector are bad.
What kind of manager would be so stupid as to send a black male out with a blank check? I can’t help but think this was a set up by the Times. This is definitely a story to follow. Sending a black in and then yelling discrimination is the oldest trick in the book. I still use it myself when I get frustrated with a particular supplier.
Mr. Gator, as usual your post is somewhat tongue-in-cheek but you have some points hidden in there.
It IS entirely possible that they had every reason in the world to be suspicious. I was a retail manager myself once, and I saw lots of bad checks.
But, don't they have a check machine to scan the checks? And didn't they verify that the check was good by speaking directly to the accountant for the firm? So I think we have something more than that.
Besides, as others pointed out, similar transactions had happened and WalMart hadn't batted an eye until it was a black man. And, from the looks of him, he's not a shifty looking guy! He's well dressed and neat. Of course I should point out that multi millionaires are notoriously eccentric and often dress and act like slobs. So appearances aren't easy to go by.
I have not set foot in a Wal-Mart for years.
If given a Wal-Mart gift card, I would buy some chewing gum and then ask for change in CA$H.
The reality is that Wal-Mart is so huge, this will not hurt the company at all. The $14,000 sale is piddly to the company. And people in the Tampa Bay area will still shop there.
They will get away with it.
Actually the most plausible theory is that the manager was circumventing the A/P system so he could pocket some of the gift cards. I hope someone from the SEC reads your blog because my close friend Sarbanes Oxley would certainly start waving a red flag. The manager probably thought, send the black dude he’s just thankful to have a job. He won’t count how many cards are actually distributed especially if he gets a few.
Your politically correct theory is funny. Thanks.
Very interesting information. My boyfriend and I have had some problems (minor) at Walmart, but they were enough to keep him away from now on.
They may just be getting "too big for their britches"!
Lazy Iguana, I hope that, given time, WalMart will destroy itself and we won't have to worry about it. A few more idiocies like this and they'll be sued right out of business.
Mr. Gator, *rolling eyes*
Lee Ann, yeah, and then some. They've really been a blight in America for many years. They're famous for going into small towns and driving their competition out of business, then raising their prices, among other general nastiness they've done.
It amazes me that this kind of stuff still happens. It's sad. Maybe I'm living in my own little world, but it's so rare that I see these things happen---yet I hear about it a lot from different areas. NY is very diverse, so maybe that's the reason- but racism is everywhere, regardless...I know that.
Remember the incident with Denny's? One little incident like that- and a company can literally be destroyed by a bad reputation.
Wal-Mart shows they even have control of the police as they continue their quest for world domination. One of my ex bosses took a tour of the Wally World headquarters in Bentonville and came back reporting that in 10 years Wally World would be (or needs to be) in charge of the Defense Dept. making tanks, planes, etc. While that may be true ? I know people who won't step a foot there and people whose eyes begin to glaze over at the mere mention of the word.....WALMART...Must drop what I'm doing an go now (Some kind of zombie)I love my clothes made in China (slobber, slobber) I just saved 24 cents and helped close down another American plant.
Uncle Joe, It's really incredible. You know many years ago when it was fashionable to 'buy American', I didn't. I was young and poor and thought these people were idiots. And the truth is, it's very hard to encourage people to 'buy American' when it's more expensive. What's the solution then? Tarriffs on imports. It's the only answer.
Deb, you know I'd forgotten that about Denny's until you mentioned it! You're right! I wonder if this will impact WalMart's image at all, though...?
It would have been while we were still in FL, probably July or August, but I'll check. We separated when we walked in. Five people asked me if I needed help. I couldn't go more than 10 yards without someone speaking to me. My husband was FOLLOWED around the store by an employee, yet no one asked him if he needed help, which he did, and when he finally did turn to the stalking employee and ask a question, the guy was EXTREMELY rude. There have been other incidents in that store, so we don't go back to compUSA.
Wish we had something like the claw!
My husband has been looking for an old record player to play his 33 and 76 lps on.
That is so totally cool!!!
Ugh. Being multi-racial myself - black, white, native american - I hate to see people discriminate and even worse when a large company does it.
I like Target better anyway. Walmart is getting a little too big for its britches.
I don't know, but I believe that it was not "Wal-Mart", but some pissant (do they use that term on blogs?) who brought his own feelings in and blew the thing up. The world is full of pissants. Every big company has them as do most small ones. I read the stuff from WalMart Watch etc., but when I was younger and a little healthier I went to work around Hurricanes (Hugo and Andrew) and where local merchants were screwing everybody, Wal-Mart and Home Depot were selling things at less than list, donating them, providing space and generally doing good stuff. I won't deny that this thing in Tampa happened, but I suspect it wasn't endemic. In our area, without wide multiracial care Wal-Mart couldn't stay in business.
It's always easier to hate the big guy, (and some of their suppliers have good reason to hate them) but I have students (of several races) who started as "associates" to work their way through college who are managing a Sam's, a warehouse distribution center and are office workers who own enough Wal-Mart stock (bought at discount) and make enough that they could buy and sell me.
Polanco, that sucks. Of course you know the retail truism: if you think they might steal from you, be over-attentive. That's what I always taught my people. But I taught them also to be discreet, and look beyond appearances.
Barbara, The Claw rocks. I'll have to get a pic of it!
Eddo, Oh, I forgot you had some Indian in the mix! You just look like Eddo, to me. ;o)
3 Score & 10, you have some good points. But I don't lump all the big guys in the same category. Target, for instance, is exceptional. But WalMart is known for repeated racism suits, etc. They have some endemic issues that need to be addressed. BTW, pissant=excellent term.
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