Busted at Bashas'...(because I'm Black?)

With events in news headlines somewhat dominated by events in Ferguson (Missouri), and similar incidents...I was very amused at what happened to me.  And hours after...wondering if I should be (a bit) more concerned...

December 2...about 9 a.m.  I was dressed in black jean pants, and what passes for black sport shoes...a button-up shirt with a collar...a long trench coat...and a fedora-style on my long afro-style hair.  I hadn't shaven in about a week.

Outside of the Bashas' Supermarket at 8360 North Thornydale Road (in Tucson, Arizona), I put my large black backpack in a cart, and walked into the store.  I walked towards the Customer Service counter, but stopped before reaching it because I noticed their humidor.  After browsing what was available, I purchased a lottery ticket...and then walked into the main aisles areas to browse.

After reaching the far end of an aisle, a (male) member of their staff asked me if I was looking for something.  I said I was, and he informed me I had walked past where the items are.

He asked if I had taken something.  From what he said, I thought he was asking if I had taken some "scratchers"...a type of lottery ticket.  After understanding he meant backscratchers, sticks used to scratch one's back when they have an itch...I LOUDLY laughed.  I couldn't help it.  I found this situation VERY funny.  And, a little confusing...but I responded I did not take any backscratchers.  He was very polite, but said he wanted me to tell the truth.  I asked if he wanted to search me...he said he did not.  I reminded him he could check the security cameras...he stated he did not want to do that.

I went to where he said the items were in the aisle on the shelves...and he was correct:  I had walked past them.  The guy came to where I was with a backscratcher to show me they had them in stock.  And, again, asked me if I had taken any.  I again said I had not.  He said that they sometimes do not allow customers to bring bags (and backpacks) into the store.  I informed him that I have a lot of electronics in my backpack...and asked him if he wanted to look inside of my backpack.  He said he did not want to.  He just wanted me to tell the truth.  A different member of their staff stated they are missing three backscratchers.

I went to a checkout line...and he was there.  He again asked if I had any backscratchers.  I said I did not.  I stated I didn't know they had any in stock.  He pointed towards the end of the customer service counter...where the cigars are.  I needed over twenty seconds to notice the backscrathers...they were hanging on a freestanding display.  After entering the store, I had walked past them...before I browsed the cigars that were available.  He again stated that he wanted me to tell the truth.  I informed him that I did not have them, and if he/they wanted to pursue this issue with me further I would be going to the business next to their store to get a haircut.

At the beginning of this all, I was amused.  As it progressed...maybe I should have been offended.  I did begin to allow my thoughts to expand on the experience, and what it all might mean.  Michael Brown/Ferguson.  John Crawford/Walmart.  Other situations where there may have been misunderstandings by authorities as to exactly what actually happened.

Multiple times in my life, in various places (in the U.S.A.), I have been "a suspect"...I "looked like somebody"...I just happen to be in the area.  Police have driven past other violators...to get to me (and again, I had to hire a lawyer after which I was not compensated for when I won).  With no warning or preface, police have begun contact with me with:  "Where you goin'?"  "What's your name?"  "Come here, boy..."

Three times I was approached about the issue in the store.  I wonder:  Were the security cameras on?  Was a recording of my visit made?  Why was it necessary for us to talk about it three times?

Were they suspicious of the way I dressed?  They way I look (my ethnicity)?  The length of my hair and beard?

"Busted at Bashas'...(because I'm Black?)"  I don't know.  Before I entered the store...I had considered applying for a job there...

Black Radio Today...listening has declined

...Black Radio Today 2011...uses Arbitron audience estimates to develop a...profile of radio listening among Black consumers...

About 94% of Black consumers listened to radio every week.

Black radio’s decline in Time Spent Listening continued.
...All formats were down year-to-year except Religious, which gained 15 minutes per week, while Adult Contemporary and All News held steady.

{I'm not surprised.  I greatly doubt that Black radio is serving their communities and providing all of the public service they could. - S!ick}

Listening by older Black men increased.
...men aged 35 or above have tuned in during weekday middays, afternoons and evenings.

Urban Adult Contemporary continued as America’s favorite format among Black listeners for the fifth straight year.

Gospel was a Time Spent Listening powerhouse.
Gospel enjoyed the longest Time Spent Listening rates of all formats targeting Black listeners. It was No. 2 only to Urban AC among those 12-24 and in various adult demos. Its TSL decreased just 15 minutes per week overall, but gained among 18-34s—the only music format to do so.

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to letters@ebony.com
date Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 5:26 AM
response to an "Achieve" article

regarding:
April edition
page 68
"The Death of Black Radio?"

I have never worked for Cathy Hughes or Radio One.  I HAVE worked for radio stations formatted for Black audiences, that were Black-owned...and am very hesitant to again do so.

I once worked at WYCB in Washington, a gospel station, and to my great surprise found the most "two-faced Christians" I have ever met.  When KDKO in Denver was Black-owned, it was unnecessarily stressful with expectations of staff to genuflect to management.

Working for a Black-owned radio station in Milwaukee that was mass-appeal formatted, "Churban/Rythmic", I did not make a lot of money...but the owner, Willie Davis, and the rest of management (that were at All-Pro Broadcasting) were very kind to me.  I will again work for him/them if ever given the opportunity.  But based on what I have heard about Radio One from those who have been employed by them (and are) does not give me great desire to seek a position with that organization.

Black people in Black radio are killing it.  We've abandoned what made it great by mimicking the mistakes and weaknesses of large radio broadcasting corporations.  Of course it's a business, but it should also be "a calling".

 

we are a "Blended Nation"

Mike Tauber was kind to send to me a copy of his book, "Blended Nation: Portraits and Interviews of Mixed-Race America".

He took the photographs and conducted the interviews.

It is co-produced by Pamela Singh who holds (a Master's in International Finance & Economics from Columbia University and) a BA in social psychology from Connecticut College.

============================

Press Release

"Through a series of soulful photographs, personal vignettes, and poignant essays, Blended Nation...explores the experience of being mixed-race in twenty-first century America. As much a work of art as a piece of literature, this book profiles the fastest-growing demographic group in the United States, encouraging both contributors and readers to consider the place, practice, and experience of race in modern society...

"...Through portraits and interviews with mixed-race children, adults, and families, Mike Tauber and Pamela Singh literally invite their subjects to lend their faces and voices to a discussion of race in America. By allowing contributors to offer their own, and often differing perspectives, the authors create an immensely rich collection of thoughts, opinions, and unanswered questions such as: What happens to the identity of those individuals who are a quarter this, a half that, etc. who don’t visually correspond to any particular group when it comes to race, ethnicity and ancestry? Where do they fit? What box do they check? Most importantly, why is this even considered an issue?...

"...several contributors confess how they always felt ‘too black to be white and to white to be black’..."

================================

It's a great "coffee table book": 11 x 11 inches, 140 pages...

As I began to read the book, initially I felt hesitant to review it "too much": I immediately felt that the story of each individual would be unique. As mine is...

The pictures are gripping. I find myself closely studying the features of each person. I am intrigued. Then, I see the picture of someone whose facial features, in my opinion, look exactly as mine. And, I see that they are a member of the Blackfoot tribe...like I believe I am! I'm not sure what to do or think about that...

I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was when I read the statement from an African-American male who married a white woman...that his family had disowned him. I guess I can still be amazed that some could/would do that. (There are more of those incidents recounted in the book.) I was raised by my great-grandparents until I was nine years old. I don't remember if, when I was a child, I ever knew if there were any people who did not want me around. I suspect my great-grandparents, a White woman and Black man, did all they could to shield me from that. From my teenage years on, I remember incidents of others not wanting me around...

One woman profiled in the book stated that she has identified her heritage as "hybrid" on forms. I wish I had thought of that...I hope I can remember it.

During my formative years the difinitive and accepted term for the times was "Black". And that's what I became. I have nothing against the term African-American, other than it doesn't describe me: I am of African decent, but an American citizen. I can live with "American-African"...

Depending on who has said it, and how they meant it, I have accepted "Negro" as well as "Colored":

When I was in high school in West Germany, 1978-1979, I lived in a dormitory. I played American-style football on the school team. There was only one person I'm aware of who would allow some of us...who were Black...to stay with her on the weekends. I remember being prepared by some of my teamates as I walked to meet her for the first time: "...Now...you need to understand...she's an old white woman...kind of set in her ways...she don't mean no harm...Mrs. Case is just the way she is..."

Mrs. Case, a white woman, would feed us and make sure we were OK and safe. I don't know what her past is, but Mrs. Case described us as (her) "colored boys": "...my boys will be over this weekend...you know, my colored boys that stay with me." If you ever took the time to get to know Mrs. Case, you would realize that...this is the only way she ever knew and understood as to how refer to us. For whatever reason, she didn't use "black" on "negro". In her defense (which I will always be), maybe because (to her) those terms were demeaning/derogatory/antagonistic. Who knows why, and it doesn't matter why. I expect something in her past led her to use the terminology the way she did. We could tell by her actions that her use of the term "colored" was intended and meant to be used with much love and affection, and we accepted her support. We listened to her heart, and not her words...

(In an episode of Barney Miller, a character refers to Harris as "Colored". Yamana says: "I'm colored. He's black..." That was he first time I've ever heard someone Asian described that way. He's not wrong; until then, I never knew he was right.)

I proudly proclaim to be a "mutt". I can imagine it causes some distress for some of my family members, but it's the term that I am VERY comfortable with for myself. Sometimes my nose is cold and wet, I might bite, and when music makes me happy I will "wag my tail".

Like their daddy, I like to describe my kids as "a mess": they are Black, White, Italian, Jewish, Chinese, Philipino, Mexican, Native...and those are the ones I know of! (Including the kids...)

Sometimes I feel I need to have a doctorate to know what really is the absolute correct word to use in discussions like this. I shall always demand that the answer to the question of race be "human". After that, I need access to a dictionary, and a thesaurus...as well as an anthropologist.

As I look at the photographs in the book all I can think of is how beautiful these people are. Well...that and I'm trying to figure-out which of the women are single. (As if it might matter to me...)

I was thinking about who I wanted to share this book with, and inform about it. One thing I thought of that is kinda funny to me is that I'm beginning to feel a little sorry for some people in my life: "Oh...you poor thing...you're ONLY white...what a shame..."

I don't know enough about my lineage. I've never met my father, and I'm not absolutely sure about all of the different types of ancestors that I have evolved from. That situation will contiue to grow for humans in general: only with meticulous record keeping will some...and I expect it to be very few...be able to trace and detail from which their family came.