The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

Years ago, my stepmother Valerie and I were on a girl's trip in Napa Valley. We came across a shopping center that had rows of boutiques that would have her shopping for hours. I am not much of a shopper, so I was just there for company and conversation. Valerie and I came across this store that had gorgeous clothing on one side and home décor connected on another. I instantly knew she was going to do damage when we entered. We were in the store for more than half an hour and absolutely no one came to ask if we needed assistance however, I noticed that they were helping others but thought nothing of it. Valarie had determined what items she wanted from the home décor side and would have them shipped back home to Maryland as we moved on to the clothing side. After selecting a few articles of clothing, she looked for a salesperson in hopes of trying the items on. She found a young lady that worked in the boutique and asked about a dressing room. The young lady told us to give her a moment, step away and began talking to an older woman not far from us. The older women approached us and began to tell Valerie a little about the clothing and how the sizes fit in a not so welcoming tone. The next thing to come out of the women's mouth were both bias and prejudice in my opinion. She began to say that there was a similar shopping strip a few miles away and they would probably have something more in her size and price range. Valerie attempted to looked over what the salesperson was saying and asked once more if she could try the clothes on. The salesperson then says if we just must have something out of the store then maybe she should try looking at the clearance section for something in her range. It was in that moment the atmosphere and the conversation took an ugly turn. I think the saleswoman was clearly prejudice against African American clientele and thought that we either did not deserve the clothing or could not afford it for whatever her reasons. I was livid with the way things happen, not only were we not greeted upon entering the boutique, in addition to that the reason we were not given the opportunity as the other shoppers were because we did not fit her usual description of a shopper.  

I strongly feel that the only way that incident or incidents like this one could have a better outcome is for anyone working in the public to remove ALL personal bias or retain jobs that the do not inflict their prejudices on other because of their ethnicity. Although that is somewhat unrealistic until we can deal with our own prejudices, we cannot stop the spread of the damage biases do, be it major or minor. We need to take a pause and try to place ourselves in others positions to see how it could make us feel if we are spoken to or treated less than we deserve.