Dear Editor,
Last Saturday, I went to Kissoon’s Furniture Store Industrial Site, Ruimveldt to purchase and uplift some items that I needed. I had visited the store a few days earlier, so I walked in being intimately aware of the required prices for each individual piece. The experience I had shopping while black at Kissoon’s has left me thinking further about the state of black experiences in Guyana. Often, these experiences are disregarded and pushed aside as individual biases and not part of a larger collective problem we have concerning the discrimination afro-descended persons face daily.
Upon walking into Kissoon’s, much like the last time I was there, I was ignored. This was fine with me because the way in which I and so many other afro-descendants are usually leered at and followed around in Chinese and Indian-owned stores is very disconcerting. I noted at the time that this seeming disinterest could have also been because it was a furniture store and I could not possibly steal anything that they could not see. So despite recognizing how persons of other ethnicities were immediately attended to and asked how they could be helped, I decided to not let that bother me too much. After all, I had walked into the store being aware of the possibilities of me experiencing overt and covert racism. This is a reality-faced every day. While it pained me to have to spend my money where I know I was not valued, the realities of an absence/low presence of black-owned businesses and closure of other stores due to COVID meant that my needs at the time trumped my politics.
In confirming that I still wanted the items I had viewed days earlier, I then made my way over to the person that was doing the greeting when I saw they were alone. From hereon they will be referred to as “greeter”. Editor, I spent considerable time trying to get this person’s attention before they even acknowledged me with a flippant, “You want something?” I explained that yes indeed I did want many things and went to show the person the items I wanted, full sets of each. I was told that the price I was seeing displayed was for just one item and not for the entire set. I told them that I was aware. The greeter then proceeded to call over another worker, asking for the individual price of each item and at the end said, “Yeah, I know the price here wasn’t for the entire set.” I knew what was happening and the way in which I was being racially profiled and my ability to afford was being doubted, but again my needs trumped my politics and growing anger. I again let them know that I was aware of the price for each individual piece and I’d appreciate it if time could stop being wasted.
They took quite some time with drawing up my bill. Confirming the price of each item with me before they wrote it down, speaking to me as if I was a slow child and not an adult capable of understanding. I had been told that my items would be set aside while the bill was fixed so on observing that no such thing was happening, I queried as to why they were not being brought out. I was told that they were doing so. Editor, it was not until I was literally handing over my money to the cashier (who even up to this point kept confirming prices with me) that I heard the greeter issue an order for the workers to begin setting my items aside. Ten times more uncomfortable now than I was when I walked in – which was already a considerable deal of uncomfortableness – I exited the store to get a canter. I thought this would have been the end of an uncomfortable experience that I would hopefully not have to endure again, but I was wrong.
Upon returning with my selected transportation, workmen began fetching my items into the canter while I handed the guard my bill. The guard looked at me, looked at the bill, looked at the items being lifted into the canter and went inside. He returned with the greeter and the cashier, all of who are poring over the bill and looking at the items in the canter. They would then begin to loudly proclaim that one of the items needed to be taken out because I had not paid for it. I am standing there genuinely confused, angry and embarrassed as the cashier, the guard and the greeter demand items be taken out. I recognized I was being accused of being a thief and that this was not a case of a simple mistake.
I pointed out that every single item that was there was already paid for. During all of this however, I was not acknowledged once. They seemed keen on reclaiming items that were bought and paid for but would not acknowledge me, the person spending my earned money in their store. I demanded to have my bill so I could bounce because the passion that was building within me was not good and I knew how quickly police could become involved in such matters. I was still being ignored as I kept pointing out that I paid for everything. They continued to pore over the bill and items in the truck before finally acknowledging to themselves that all the items were indeed paid for. They handed me my bill and walked back inside the store. I was not offered an apology for the racial profiling or the embarrassment I faced on account of these persons. I was completely invisibilized and simultaneously targeted for shopping while black.
I am very aware of how one’s colour and texture of their hair is often contentious when moving freely in public/private spaces and how it causes increased attention from security/police but this knowledge did not make the experience any easier for me. Before this, I had considered returning to Kissoon’s later on to buy some more items I needed. Never again though. This attack on my dignity will not be forgotten. I document this experience to caution others to be wary of the places we spend our money as it can often compromise and threaten our liberty. Consumer racial profiling is just one instance of the continued racism afro-descendants face every day. The beliefs that allow this drives more serious experiences and accounts for the fact that black children and adults are overrepresented in the welfare and prison systems due to the association of poverty-driven criminality. No one deserves this sort of treatment but it is unfortunate that I am cognizant that this practice will continue unchecked – not only at Kissoon’s – but also in so many other public and private spaces across our beloved multi-ethnic country I call home.
Yours faithfully,
Akola Thompson
