It’s A Big Country

I work for a well-known dollar store. I am a cashier and can’t process returns without a manager’s help. I’m heavily into screamo, death metal, dubstep, and the like, but I look mousy and unassuming, with glasses and a bun. A black man, whom I have never seen before, comes in with a CD.

Customer: “I’d like to return this.”

He sets down an oldies country CD with Dwight Yoakam on it.

Customer: “I grabbed the wrong one.”

Knowing my manager is very busy, I decide to try to do an even exchange, since all of our CDs have the same barcode.

Me: “Well, sir, what CD did you mean to get?”

Customer: “This is your people’s music!”

Me: “Uh, what?”

Customer: “You know. White people. I’m black. I grabbed the wrong CD. It’s very misleading.”

I look at the cover.

Me: “Considering this has nothing but ‘my people’ on it, plus it says, ‘Country Music Legends,’ on it, and it is the only country music CD on the rack next to all of these African American artists, I find that hard to believe.”

Customer: “Just get your manager, girl!”

I shrug and go get her. She asks for a description of the customer, peeks over a shelf, and sighs.

Manager: “That man came in last night and bought that CD. I asked him three times if he really wanted that CD, and he told me to not be racist.”

Me: “He just told me that because I’m white, it’s my type of music.”

Manager: “He’s done this too many times. I think he’s burning the CDs and then returning them for the money.”

He eventually slipped up and admitted that’s exactly what he was doing. He was banned from the store.