The sad reality about KC councilwoman’s ‘humiliating’ Walmart racial profiling report

In just the latest installment of “all that can go wrong while driving, studying, eating, standing or shopping while black,” Kansas City Councilwoman Melissa Robinson has complained to Walmart about the “completely humiliating experience” of being racially profiled at their only store in her district, on U.S. Highway 40.

On Sunday, she tweeted: “Racism: Black people being targeted and treated like thieves @Walmart self-check out #JimCrow Perhaps blatant white-only signs are making a comeback. Very disappointed #WalmartBecky would not let me leave until she found my items to price match. You can keep it!...I just imagined all what my ancestors went through when blatantly refused service and being unwelcome where they spent their money.”

Last Friday evening, Robinson said in an interview, she’d stopped at the store to pick up a blanket for her grandmother, and had found “a beautiful throw on sale for only $9.” But after she scanned it in the self-checkout lane, a clerk approached her and said, “I think that item rang up wrong.”

“I was caught off guard and didn’t think anything about it until she said, ‘Don’t leave until I come back.’”

By the time the employee returned, Robinson said, she was angry and the clerk who had told her not to go anywhere wound up explaining that actually, she couldn’t be guilty of racial profiling because she herself has biracial grandchildren.

Then that white employee, Robinson said, pointed to a Hispanic coworker and said, ‘She’s the one who told me to pinpoint you.’”

An African American manager soon showed up, apologized and explained that employees were doing random checks after a rash of tag-switching thefts. But was the check random? Is Walmart going to start advertising “prices so good we’ll accuse you of stealing”?

“I live in Olathe,” the manager told her then, according to Robinson, “so I know how you feel.” She told the city councilwoman to call 1-800-Walmart to report the incident, which Robinson did. She’s waiting for the company to look into it and get back to her.

A Walmart spokesman told us they’re investigating, and issued this statement: “We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We take these allegations seriously and are looking into this matter. We value our customers and want everyone to be treated with respect while shopping in our stores.”

Especially after the year their company has had — 22 shot dead in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, three shot dead outside a Walmart in Duncan, Oklahoma, and more merely scared to death by a man in body armor and strutting around with a rifle in a Walmart in Springfield, Missouri — their business depends on making customers feel safe and respected, too.

But to any who still don’t know, racial profiling isn’t OK, no matter who your grandchildren are, or who told you to do it, or whether you can sympathize with being treated as “less than” because you are non-white and living in Olathe.

And Walmart, for heaven’s sake make your tags harder to switch, so your paying customers don’t have to shop elsewhere.

This story was originally published December 30, 2019 at 5:18 PM.