Racial discrimination

I am a 20 plus African student currently studying at the College, on Friday November 17th, 2017, I entered a store located at the Capri Center on Gordon Drive. I was dressed in brown jeans, t-shirt (with my sweater on as it was cold) and my toque.

As I entered the store the cashier said to me immediately in aggressive manner that I need to leave my bag at the front of the store. Before I could respond a caucasian lady who was at the front of line waiting to be assisted responded to her by saying "excuse me, why are you asking him to leave his bag when I have had mine on during the entire time I was in the store?". The cashier tone changed and she responded in a very polite manner that it was store policy and that there was a sign. I did not see any sign prior to entering the store, nor any designated baggage counter or personnel. In essence, she wanted me to leave my bag on the ground. I was not about to do that as this was my second time entering the store and it was not said to me the first. I am not sure if it is because I had to the toque on but this time I felt harassed. I decided not to leave the bag based on her response to the lady and went about my business.

Upon returning to the cashier with my items, she began to harass me verbally by saying how I should leave the bag the next time. I explained to her that I do not have a problem with the policy as it is implemented in my home country. I went further to say that I did not see the sign, now what was different this time around was that she was being verbally aggressive once more as it was just her and I at the counter. Her attitude was disgusting, I was trying to respond respectfully, however she kept cutting me off. In fact, while speaking she was looking at me and saying 'okay, okay, are you done now? Are you ready to go?".

I had never felt so embarrassed and insulted in an store before, I started to get upset and asked her not to cash my items. I told her to put them aside and blatantly asked if she was discriminating against me. That is how I felt in that situation based on her hate seemingly disrespectful and hate filled responses. Her tone changed as she realized I was not going to tolerate her disrespect anymore and when she realized that another caucasian lady was now standing behind me in the line. I told her that she was being unnecessarily  rude towards me and I had done nothing wrong. I told her to get the manager immediately after proceeding to cash my items. She got the manager who was a caucasian male and he didn't do much justice to the situation. He came and I explained to him the scenario, before apologizing his first response was that she has a language barrier. I explained to him that it could not be the case as she was able to understand and respond to me very clearly. When he realized that other customers were now looking on he proceeded to apologize and say that he will speak with her so it does not happen to me or anyone else.

I exited the store and decided to look for said sign, the sign was very small and poorly placed among a plethora of promotional ads on the window. I would had to stop for a good while to see said sign. I would really like for this incident to be brought to light and this kind of behavior should not be tolerated.

The town is becoming more diverse and people cannot be treated this way simply because of their ethnicity, religion. age, race, or any other factor.

Rasheed Brown