Racism and Retail

Middle and upper class black neighborhoods don’t get the same national retailers and restaurants as middle and upper class white neighborhoods, and The Atlantic explores how one community outside Chicago — “a mixed-race community, where the average annual household income is $77,000, above the county average” — is trying to change that. And why it happens in the first place. Can you guess?

“In our community, we are trying to change the perception of what it means to be in a black community,” [village administrator David Mekarski] says. To demonstrate his point, he often asks people to close their eyes and picture a black community, and then a white one.”

Do it!!!!!!

“Contrast the juxtaposition of those two communities,” he says. “That’s what we’re fighting. We’re fighting with a national retailer sitting in Atlanta, or L.A., and when they think African American, they think ‘poor, uneducated, high shrinkage, high crime.’ They’re thinking it’s going to be a poor investment, and they move on.”

If you pictured Hamsterdam from THE WIRE’s contrasted with, I don’t know, the California suburbs of WEEDS or any movie or TV show depicting The Perfect American Neighborhood and Existance, ding ding ding, you are racist. But: We are all racist. We Live In a Racist Society! Our job is to recognize that and make strides to counteract it. Which is why I think this is a copout:

The practice [of businesses staying out of black neighborhoods, also called “retail redlining”] is tricky to study, though, because these types [“these types” being upper middle class black neighborhoods] of communities are still relatively few in number (with hard-to-find comparison communities), and because it’s difficult to distinguish a retailer’s “unconscious racism” from its legitimate business reasons for locating a store or a restaurant.

“Unconcious racism” is not an excuse. And it shouldn’t be a thing. Retail companies should be aware of this, wary of it. They should correct for it.

And in some instances, they do — because they have to. (Flip that last sentence to make it about a job: “…because it’s difficult to distinguish a retailer’s “unconscious racism” from its legitimate business reasons for [hiring an employee].”)

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