Today I went shopping.  I am actually incredibly proud of the deals I got--3 dresses, a pair of dress shorts, a romper (kind of like red lipstick...takes guts to wear one but I couldn't resist), and new sunglasses, all for about $50. I'm that good.  And while I seriously considered making my entire entry today about my haul, I couldn't justify doing that after something I witnessed while gathering that haul.

I was looking at some skirts (I've been really wanting a jersey knit black skirt...very versatile).  There had been a siren-like noise coming from the other side of the store for a while.  It didn't cross me as anything to focus on, so I forgot the sound was even there after a while.  From working in retail I realized that it was probably just a security tag malfunctioning.  But then I heard a woman raising her voice nearby.  "Excuse me," she said.  "Do you work here?"  She was addressing another woman nearby.  The woman must have said yes because the first woman immediately began explaining that it's awful that the alarms go off on the purses whenever someone looks at them.  "How are we supposed to buy them if we can't see them?" she exclaimed.  "You make me look like I'm trying to steal something!"

My friends and I often call each-other out, half joking, half serious, antagonistically saying "your privilege is showing," in a sing-song voice.  In that moment it was as if one of them was singing that phrase right into my ear, because I instantaneously became aware of my privilege.  You see, never once have I experienced what this woman described.  Never once has anyone assumed that I was stealing anything.  I'm a little white girl.  When sirens go off, it's always assumed that it's because the sirens are malfunctioning.  I know that this is the assumption and I just continue on my merry way.  While I associated the sound of sirens in a department store with malfunction, she, a black woman, associated the sound of alarms in a department store with wrongful accusation.

Rightfully so.  Take a quick scan through the Google scholar search results for the phenomenon aptly named "Shopping While Black" and you can see that this woman's experience is not isolated.  This is such a large issue that there is a name for the phenomenon associated with being black and also shopping. The fact that what should be a normal and everyday thing, shopping, has become so difficult for black people that it has been phenomenon-ed is incredibly disturbing to me. The fact that it has been phenomenon-ed also means, however, that someone is researching it, which comforts the academic in me, but not enough to turn away and forget this ever happened.

It pains me to know that there are people who live their lives with the understanding that they will likely be wrongly accused for something at some point simply because of the color of their skin.  It is disgusting to me that the society in which I live, to which I contribute, and that I am a privileged member of, still allows this to occur. This needs to end,

So check to see if your privilege is showing, and do it often, because shopping is a beautiful thing. Everyone deserves the right to gather their haul in peace, without fear. Not just privileged white girls.

Keep on thinking,
Josie