The Gap

The other day, I exchanged some jeans at Old Navy and upon entering the store the alarms went off as they had when I exited the store on the day of original purchase. The original purchase day, one of the employees very politely assisted me in attempting to disarm the tags and apologized for the inconvenience. Essentially the same thing happened the other day when I exited the same old navy the second time with the new pairs of jeans, children in tow. the sales girl waved it off and said don't worry about it. So off to the Gap Kids we go. Well upon entering the Gap Kids the alarms went off because both stores are owned by the Gap and use the same theft deterrent system. I told the clerk it kept happening at with the Old Navy purchases and proceeded to get assistance for the item for which I had come. They didn't have it so we left only to have the alarms go off again. the young man whom had assisted me was like don't worry and asked the twit who appeared to be training him if they could deactivate it in their store. She said I don't know and asked him to check my bag & emphatically said check the receipt. both were white. The young man was obviously uncomfortable with it because hell, he saw just as she did that the alarm had gone off when I walked in. I repeated that this had been a problem three times already at Old Navy and that the mechanism will not deactivate. Now, my experiences could easily tell me that she did that because I'm a person of color; my experiences could also say she was just doing her job of inventory control or plain being a bitch. Either way, the way she handled the situation was unprofessional and demeaning. Why couldn't she have handled it the same way the old navy employee, whom prior to the alarm going off, had not had any interaction with me whatsoever. Why couldn't she have been polite and said maam do you mind if we check your receipt. hell, the store is little and I had been with an associate the entire time.

I share this with you because A) it pissed me off; I was with my children for crying out loud in a suit (not that this precludes theft, but it certainly abates suspicion among most) B) just to offer some perspective (I'm sure someone white has had similar or nearly identical encounters, but their experiences, cultural and social, likely led them to different reactions.) While I would like people to always act in a fair and just manner, this is not always the case. I employ the ideology of giving everyone the benefit of the doubt in most circumstances, but there are moments in which that ideology is inappropriate and makes more a fool of me than a principled person. Nevertheless, I being of conscious body and mind, do not take that as representation of the Gap and certainly not of all caucasians. She is as I said before, the one twit who acted unprofessionally and could in effect be labeled as a racist or a bigot from one unfortunate decision had she encountered someone bitter. I'll just call her stupid.