Eating yogurt while black (Seattle: move, racism, assault)

[Ralph_Kirk]

Originally Posted by TinaTwo

Picketing for this is ridiculous . If someone doesn’t want to go there anymore fine. A young employee made an error in judgment based on her perceptions or past experiences. Ragland will be just fine. It’s nonsense to take this any further than employee counseling and training. I bet if the employee asked him if he was going to order anything, then that would be construed as a problem as well and people would be aghast that the employee dared to ask such a question and the same results we have now would still be occurring.

I'd point out, btw, that it was the manager who called the police.

[leastprime]

OK, Got the article "Apology for ousting black man from shop", AP, in my Oregon (StatemanJournal, 11/21/2018, p7) newspaper. No idea how identical the articles are since there is a pay wall on SeattleTimes.
This happened Nov 7. The artlcle reads that on Monday, Nov 19, Mr Cruz (owner of Kirkland's Menchie's Yogurt Shop), Posted an apology on the business' door and his explanation of the incident. He goes on to say that his employees said they were "kind of scared because he looks suspicious."

Mr Ragland, is a nine year veteran of the AirForce. [which doesn't have anything to do with the incident, but is mentioned]

Here is a KIRO radio response: 'We failed this man': An open letter from a black cop after Menchie's incident
Here is a 2013, Undercover Boss, article: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mench...145651421.html.

Kirkland is an upscale area, in King County, on Lake Washington's eastern shore, and encompasses , north of Bellevue. It is a 15 minute bus ride from Redmond.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Harry Hemi

In this instance, it wasnt mentioned in the article, but after the last robbery, its possible the owner gave his crew bad instructions on how to handle someone they think could potentially rob the place. Yknow, dont approach, watch for weird behavior, look how theyre dressed, things like that. I had to do this in the 90s while I worked at retail stores. It wasnt even about race, it was about shady looking characters that have snatched things.
If thats the case it would at least explain why they didnt approach him. They might not have necessarily done the right thing. Hard to tell without seeing the situation. Who knows, maybe he was looking at the menu trying to decide if he would buy something and they thought he was looking at them.

All I know is, because of incidents like this I sure as hell wouldnt go into a fast food store and not buy anything, let alone look at staff. Im too indecisive, Id get the cops called on me before I even figured out if I wanted to eat.

You're right; that wasn't mentioned in the article. The same shop had experienced a robbery?

Still, if the guy in question had entered with a couple of other patrons, as we're told he had, in his role as a supervisor to some kind of encounter process between between the people he was in charge of, that should have been evident. An employee could have asked him, "Are you with them, sir?", and given him a chance to explain. Part of the problem here, is that the employees were high school kids, not confident, mature adults.

In any case, apologies have been made, from both the store owner, and law enforcement. I just hope people take the message from this incident, that employees of any kind, public- or private-sector, need more training in how to perform their jobs professionally.

[leastprime]

JMO, Probably a case of racial profiling.
this happened in a mono color neighborhood.

[zitsky]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

You're right; that wasn't mentioned in the article. The same shop had experienced a robbery?

Still, if the guy in question had entered with a couple of other patrons, as we're told he had, in his role as a supervisor to some kind of encounter process between between the people he was in charge of, that should have been evident. An employee could have asked him, "Are you with them, sir?", and given him a chance to explain. Part of the problem here, is that the employees were high school kids, not confident, mature adults.

In any case, apologies have been made, from both the store owner, and law enforcement. I just hope people take the message from this incident, that employees of any kind, public- or private-sector, need more training in how to perform their jobs professionally.

I agree employees do need more training but I *do* understand why teenagers would be reluctant to confront someone. (Would they be equally reluctant to confront a white person?) As was pointed out here, it was the owner who called police, so he needs more training too.

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by zitsky

I agree employees do need more training but I *do* understand why teenagers would be reluctant to confront someone. (Would they be equally reluctant to confront a white person?) As was pointed out here, it was the owner who called police, so he needs more training too.

They could have asked "Can I help you"? That doesn't strike me as confrontational.

[zitsky]

Originally Posted by Ira500

They could have asked "Can I help you"? That doesn't strike me as confrontational.

Some people think they are too delicate to do that. If they had asked that question it would have saved a lot of trouble.

[rodentraiser]

Originally Posted by zitsky

It's understandable to be suspicious. The question is, do you treat everyone the same? Do you call the police when it's a white person, just like anyone else?

If you aren't colorblind when profiling people, you're leaving yourself open to a world of hurt. You profile on behavior, not skin color. If the majority of people who get your attention because of how they behave just happen to be a certain race, that's just the way it is. But if you profile completely on race instead of behavior, you're gonna get hit from something you didn't see coming.

A white Santa tried to come into my store during Christmas once, beard, costume, and all. He was fiddling with a pouch around his waist and I backed him out of the store and told him he couldn't come in until he took his beard off. Everything is an overreaction until something happens.

For the record, the town I worked in was 99.999% rich and white. That is not to say only white people came into my store. During the day, many Hispanic workers would come in, usually in a group, and it was agreed on by all of us that we'd rather wait on them anytime instead of some of the more entitled white people who shopped there.

There were also a lot of black people who stopped in going by, at night as well as during the day. The one time we were robbed, it was a black man who robbed us. Did I start profiling black people who came in the store. Oh, hell, no. The people who caused me the most trouble were 20 something white guys and more to the point, bad people come in every color, just like good people. I think one of the nicest was a black gentleman who came in late one evening when I had a bunch of drunks out on the sidewalk. He asked me if I needed him to stay with me until they left in case there was trouble.

So many of our customers treated us like we were dirt under their feet. To have someone offer to stay with me in case there was trouble - well, there aren't words enough to express my appreciation.

People need to quit looking at color and start looking at behavior.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Ira500

They could have asked "Can I help you"? That doesn't strike me as confrontational.

Right. "May I help You" or "Are you with them, sir?", are not confrontational. As service personnel, it's their job. You hire people to serve the public, but then they're afraid to do that? They're afraid of the "public" they were hired to serve? No. Just -- no!

And yes, good point, OP; the owner/manager needs more "training", too. :headbang:

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by rodentraiser

If you aren't colorblind when profiling people, you're leaving yourself open to a world of hurt. You profile on behavior, not skin color. If the majority of people who get your attention because of how they behave just happen to be a certain race, that's just the way it is. But if you profile completely on race instead of behavior, you're gonna get hit from something you didn't see coming.

A white Santa tried to come into my store during Christmas once, beard, costume, and all. He was fiddling with a pouch around his waist and I backed him out of the store and told him he couldn't come in until he took his beard off. Everything is an overreaction until something happens.

For the record, the town I worked in was 99.999% rich and white. That is not to say only white people came into my store. During the day, many Hispanic workers would come in, usually in a group, and it was agreed on by all of us that we'd rather wait on them anytime instead of some of the more entitled white people who shopped there.

There were also a lot of black people who stopped in going by, at night as well as during the day. The one time we were robbed, it was a black man who robbed us. Did I start profiling black people who came in the store. Oh, hell, no. The people who caused me the most trouble were 20 something white guys and more to the point, bad people come in every color, just like good people. I think one of the nicest was a black gentleman who came in late one evening when I had a bunch of drunks out on the sidewalk. He asked me if I needed him to stay with me until they left in case there was trouble.

So many of our customers treated us like we were dirt under their feet. To have someone offer to stay with me in case there was trouble - well, there aren't words enough to express my appreciation.

People need to quit looking at color and start looking at behavior.

Now, this is a nice Thanksgiving Day story! Isn't this a nice story? Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!