White Fragility Digest #1: 13 May 2018

[MrScorpio]

Store Manager Stands Outside of Black Woman’s Dressing Room and Reads Theft Policies

Link to tweet

Two Black women confronted a “Fuego” store manager in Tacoma, WA, who tried to throw the ladies out of the store after claims of being racially profiled.

One of the women entered the dressing room to try on a dress when the store manager read aloud the store procedures outside of her dressing room. Both women then asked the manager what her purpose was for doing so and the employee claimed that staff members discussed theft “all the time.”

The manager then called authorities and tried to shoo the women away with scornful hand gestures. However, the girls stood their ground and made it clear they didn’t feel comfortable leaving the store just to be tackled by security. They wanted to wait for authorities to arrive and explain their side of events.

The victim who goes by Simone Intrepid Gamble posted the incident on her Facebook and wrote, “So this just happened. I was in the dressing room and while in there the manager started talking about the procedures for theft. Mind you she was not on the floor when we first arrived to the store. I select dresses then tried them on. I was going to PURCHASE one of the dresses until I heard her speaking directly in front of my dressing room about theft procedures. I then got dressed and went to tell her I wanted to buy one of the dresses and confronted her about her implicit conversation right outside the curtain. She kicked us out of the store when I tried asking her why and she then said all of this.”

http://atlantablackstar.com/2018/05/09/store-manager-stands-outside-black-womans-dressing-room-reads-theft-policies/

"White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress, leading to what I refer to as White Fragility. White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium."

Robin DiAngelo, Ph.D