Shopping while black

Shopping while black is a phrase used for the type of marketplace discrimination that is also called "consumer racial profiling", "consumer racism" or "racial profiling in a retail setting". Shopping while black describes the experience of being denied service or given poor service because one is black.

Quotes

• I realized I was being accused of being a thief, I was being accused of stealing.
  • Mary McCarthy Shopping while black': Marketplace finds some shoppers targeted by retailers because of race (February 24, 2016)

• I was a 55-year-old, middle-aged black woman and I didn't deserve that treatment.
  • Mary McCarthy Shopping while black': Marketplace finds some shoppers targeted by retailers because of race (February 24, 2016)

• I no longer go into stores where I feel uncomfortable, or purchase from brands that drill that kind of behavior into their employees.
  • Janelle Okwodu in Shopping While Black: Why I’m No Longer Afraid to Call Time on Racial Profiling (August 29, 2018)

• When a salesman at a popular beauty establishment commented that my name sounded “tribal” or a clerk at a Fifth Avenue establishment informed me upon entry that they don’t carry anything “someone like me would be interested in,” I asked to speak to the manager
  • Janelle Okwodu in Shopping While Black: Why I’m No Longer Afraid to Call Time on Racial Profiling (August 29, 2018)