I am Black.

So I was walking through Target today and I overheard an employee calling a manager. She was telling the manager that someone had left the dressing room wearing merchandise she had not paid for. She said she had not known that until five minutes after. I presume the manager asked her to describe what the woman looked like because she proceeded to tell the manager that it had been a heavyset. black woman with all her hair on top of her head. Now that is a pretty vague description if you ask me because we do live in America, where about 40% of people are overweight. However we are in Iowa where about 10% of the population is a minority, but we do live on the Earth where about 100% of people have their hair on top of their head. 

But as soon as  heard her describe the woman, and mention the word black, I knew I was in trouble. Now to understand this story, perhaps you must know what the woman doing the tattle tailing was. She was a skinny, white woman with hair on top of her head. Have you seen her? I know, good description right. Well as soon as I brought my shirt up to her, I knew this was going to suck. I came up behind her, accidentally, and I said excuse me miss. I understand that this can be scary for anyone, having someone come up behind you, I didn’t really mean to. But she didn’t scream until she saw I was black so I am not sure if she necessarily screamed because I had frightened her, at least with my surprise attack.

As I asked for my fitting room, she snatched the clothes out of my hand and proceeded to inspect each one as if I might be hiding something in them. When she came up with nothing, she handed me a number. I politely thanked her and yet, she did not respond. In fact, she did not utter a single word the whole time I was trying to talk to her, save for a few whimpers of distress. 

My friends, I regret to inform you that I have been a victim of racial profiling. We live in a society where we preach acceptance and tolerance, but this is not true. Clearly I am as black as ever. 

Peace.