Playing The Race Ticket

(I am black/white biracial. I have just started working at a clothing and home goods store. We have a return policy that states that if an item doesn’t come back with a ticket, we have to go find one out on the floor. I’m working register, as are a Spanish/Mexican lady, a Puerto Rican, two African American women, and our Polish manager. An older African American lady comes up to the register five minutes before closing and wants to return a pair of jeans.)

Coordinator: *who is Spanish/Mexican* “Sorry, ma’am, these don’t have a ticket and we haven’t received any of these in a while. We will have to find a pair on the floor to match the price.”

Customer: *huffs* “Those pants were 12.99. Just make a ticket and take them!”

(The coordinator sends out one of us to look for a pair.)

Coordinator: “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that, ma’am. I need to have a number to make them from so that the computer will accept it.”

(It’s taking a while to find a style that matches what the customer is trying to return and two minutes pass. During this time, the rest of us have finished behind the counter and are waiting for the return to finish so that we can close the store. Our manager has come up from the office to see what is taking so long.)

Customer: *more huffs* “This is taking too long! Where’s your manager? I wanna talk to your manager about this!”

(We all look at our bemused manager.)

Customer: “What, that blonde lady?!”

Manager: “I’m sorry, but this is our policy. To do the return, we need to copy a ticket.”

Customer: *eyerolls*

(A match is found and the return is completed. As the customer is stuffing her wallet back in her purse, she leaves the store, muttering.)

Customer: “That’s racist. If I was a white woman it would’ve been done faster.”

(We all turned to each other and start laughing.)

Manager: “[My Name] is the only white person here! This blonde is all peroxide!”