Racism and Feminism: Why ‘sisterhood’ never works for Black women?
I’m at the register at Wal-Mart and overhear an escalating argument. Nothing new in this world of emboldened Trumpkkkins so I thought, ‘this could escalate quickly’ and tuned in fro the potential entertainment. A Black woman with a shopping cart completely stuffed with goods bagged and paid for was announcing that she would never be back because of the nasty treatment she had experienced at this location. I thought that any minute the store manager would rush up to diffuse the situation and try to soothe a complaining customer who had obviously just spent a few hundred dollars in hopes of reversing her vow to never return. I immediately thought of my own experiences the few times I’d shopped there and can say I have never felt like a ‘valued customer’. No one follows you around like in Rite Aid. I just try to look past the typical racist advertising, product placement subliminal we-still-hate-niggers mentality bullshit and get my shop on but no warm fuzzies.
The irritated sister was saying, "NO, not YOU, it’s just this store....blah, blah, blah, I didn’t SAY you, ...”. The employee, a tall, light-skinned lady with curly hair, was stating the obvious and still didn’t ‘get it’. She kept cutting the customer off to ask “how could I be racist, look at me, I’m biracial!” Then she told the complaining customer that SHE was offended at being accused of being a racist. She had turned the tables and was suddenly the victim of being wrongfully accused by this irrational ‘angry Black woman’, like when men roll their eyes because they’ve chosen to disregard your opinion because they think you’re on your period. It’s even more infuriating when dealt from a supposed ‘sister’. Seeing that the argument was pointless, maybe because she’d already paid for a cart overflowing with goods but probably because as usual it was a no-win, cut-your-losses type of situation, she wheeled it out and I thought it was over. Not yet. The now disgruntled employee started with the post-confrontational shit-talking which was always a bit louder without the threat of rebuttal. She asked again how could she be a racist because she’s bi-racial and went on about how messed up it was to be accused of being a racist, like that crazy Black lady was so wrong for that.
My mouth dropped. I looked around at the other registers to gauge the crowd response and everyone was looking down, two youngish Hispanic ladies, an older Asian woman and a white woman were all trying to be as uninvolved as possible. Who was on whose side? They all acted like the couldn’t possibly give less of a fuck. It was as much support as a black woman could expect from a diverse group of women. On my way out I said to the employee that the lady wasn’t accusing her individually to which she responded, ‘yeah, because I’m biracial.’
JUST WOW!! That’s right you racist biracial bitch! You are obviously biracial and like expected you chose your white side by refusing to even hear the sister out. You chose your white side because when you loud-talked her in an attempt to shame her for even speaking up you knew that public opinion would most likely be on your side. You chose your white side when you blamed her for making you feel uncomfortable about race. You chose you white side when you didn’t give a fuck about justice.
I saw the sister in the parking lot and let her know I understood how she must have been pissed because the lady wouldn’t even listen. I said I heard her say that it wasn’t her, it was the store but the lady wouldn’t listen. She explained how an employee had insulted her with some rude comment about Black Panthers that had something to do with tiki torches. WOW!! I said if that biracial bitch knew anything about being Black she would’ve said, “I’m biracial SIS, what did they do to you in my store, let me get the manager, who disrespected you”? But nope, that’s not where she went. But that’s how ‘sisterhood’ usually works for Black women, female solidarity against us.
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