Looting while Black
'Shopping while black' lawsuit – a first by employees – targets CVS
Employees of CVS allege that they were instructed to follow black and Latino customers, because they 'always are the ones that are the thieves.' CVS denies the that it encouraged racial profiling, promises vigorous defense.
It’s an experience that even Oprah Winfrey, Condoleezza Rice, and President Obama have each said they experienced: "shopping while black."
Whether wealthy or less than well off, many black Americans and other racial minorities continue to give accounts of being treated as potential criminals, shoppers without the means to afford expensive items, or even “shop and frisked” – a pun that denotes being detained and questioned after paying for items or simply leaving a store.
On Wednesday, four former security personnel at CVS Pharmacy stores in New York filed a federal lawsuit in Manhattan, alleging that their loss-prevention supervisors regularly instructed them to tail black and Latino shoppers in particular. The supervisors, the suit claims, told them that “black people always are the ones that are the thieves,” and that “lots of Hispanic people steal.” ...
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