Apple Store: Being Black in Australia!

Imagine for a second being one of four smart black students-the fact that they were smart shouldn’t be important-walking into an Apple store and being confronted by white staff and security, who tell you straight to your face that you’re very presence make their staff feel uncomfortable, when one the students enquires why, he’s told, “because we feel you might steal something”.

This is what actually happened in an Apple store in Melbourne, Australia. It’s made all the more shocking because one of the young men filmed the incident. In modern cities around the world daily racism often manifests itself in much more subtle terms; a vacant taxi cab driving by after you’ve hailed it down; not getting a job, or promotion because, ‘it was very close, but...’; or just someone’s body language that recoils if you happen to sit next to them.

But 'in your face' corporate racism such as the young men faced is a reminder that this goes on all the time, but is often disguised in way that makes it almost impossible to confront.

Interestingly, some years ago we took up a case of a group of Black professional footballers, who were told by the Pizza Hut restaurant manager that they had to pay before they sat down, their white colleagues in the same restaurant were not afforded the same cordial treatment. We forced Pizza Hut to change their policy that gave managers discretion to discriminate. They promised to give 5k for one of the players charities, but reneged on that promise.

Apple itself should sack the staff, and by way of apology give the young men a university bursary to attend the best university in Australia for a life-changing act.

Knowing the way Pizza Hut acted, Apple will probably offer the young men one of their discarded iphone 4s and a begrudging apology.

Here’s the video

https://www.facebook.com/eseose.oseghale/videos/759395487523343/

Simon Woolley