What I Learned From Being Racially Profiled At School

As a young Black man from Baltimore City, I’ve personally experienced being racially profiled numerous times. Even the most mundane tasks like riding in a car, shopping at a store, or simply walking down the street, have led to several tense moments in which I have been questioned, followed, or glared at. In all of these circumstances, I was doing nothing wrong. However, because the people involved in these situations had negative preconceived ideas about Black males, they perceived as me as a threat and behaved accordingly. Before they made the effort to get to know me as an individual, they relied on stereotypes about Black males to determine how they treated me. These past experiences have left me with the apprehension that I’ll be racially profiled whenever I’m in public. Unfortunately, a recent incident at UMBC (the university I attend) reinforced my apprehension.

On December 9th, 2015 I was racially profiled and falsely accused of being a thief by an employee of the True Grit’s Outtakes location. On that day I entered Outtakes (an on-campus convenience store) at around 6:30pm, and browsed the shop’s sandwich section. After less than thirty seconds of looking, I decided to go to the other Outtakes location instead. Shortly after leaving, I was followed to the door of the outside entrance by employee Charmaine Briscoe (who left her post in the store). She yelled after me, “Excuse me young man!” and then loudly questioned me in front of several fellow students about allegedly stealing something from the store. After replying that I hadn’t, she continued to berate me (all the while neglecting her work). She then told me that I “looked suspicious”, and informed me that I could not walk through the store without buying anything. Ironically, she left other students unattended in the store in order to harass me. The inconsistency between Ms. Briscoe’s alleged perception and her actions makes abundantly clear the fact that she specifically targeted me. As an employee who is concerned about theft, why leave the store unattended with other students in it? Knowing that there is a surveillance camera in the store, why would one assume the responsibility of chasing a potential thief? In the case that someone did steal something from the store, wouldn’t it make more sense to alert campus police and turn over the surveillance footage over to them instead? Ms. Briscoe’s actions were inappropriate, and these actions suggest a lack of regard for me as a person. Specifically, her assertion that I looked suspicious shows that she thought so little of me that she believed that my sole reason for being at UMBC was to steal. Why was my presence in the store out of place? This belief is undoubtedly linked to my physical appearance, more specifically my race.

Following my negative experience at Outtakes, I was hurt and embarrassed by the accusation. Not only did Ms. Briscoe accuse me of being a thief (which is an attack on my character), but she did so in such a brash and public way that she seemed completely justified. To the bystanders who witnessed Ms. Briscoe berating me, it likely appeared that I had unsuccessfully tried to steal from Outtakes, and that I was deserving of this verbal abuse. This surely damaged my reputation in the eyes of these onlookers. Shortly after the incident, I sent an email to a group of UMBC officials, including President Freeman Hrabowski and Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. Nancy Young. I received a swift response from President Hrabowski, and later I was contacted by Dr. Young via email. In this email Dr. Young put me in contact with Dr. Kim Leisey (Associate Vice President for Student Affairs) and Tom DeLuca (UMBC’s Resident District Manager for Chartwells, a Dining Services provider).

Mr. DeLuca and I exchanged emails, and on December 10th he informed me that he would call me on Friday the 11th at 3:00pm. On the 11th at approximately 3:40pm Mr. DeLuca called me, and we discussed the incident. He informed me that he had seen the surveillance footage from the night of the incident. He also confirmed that I hadn’t stolen anything, and agreed that Ms. Briscoe’s behavior was inappropriate. However, Mr. DeLuca then informed me that people have stolen from Outtakes in the past, and that the reason Ms. Briscoe told me I looked suspicious is that my hands were in my pockets when I left the store. (Ms. Briscoe never mentioned this being her reason for stopping me that night). Also, from the moment I entered the store my hands never left my pockets (a fact Mr. DeLuca was aware of, as evidenced by his review of the surveillance video). Why mention these past thieves? Do we look the same? Why did Ms. Briscoe immediately equate the presence of my hands in my pockets to theft? Including this information in our conversation was an attempt to assign me some of the blame for what happened that night. The implication was made that if I didn’t have my hands in my pockets in a store that had been stolen from before, then Ms. Briscoe wouldn’t have approached me.

I was disappointed in Mr. DeLuca’s response because even after determining that I didn’t steal anything from the surveillance footage from that night, he still attempted to assign some blame to me for what had happened. With his comments Mr. DeLuca held me responsible for how Ms. Briscoe interpreted my appearance, instead of holding her solely responsible for her behavior. These comments are particularly problematic because they suggest that my duty at all times is to undertake the impossible task of resolving deeply rooted biases held by other people. They also absolve these people of any responsibility for their discriminatory behaviors.

Unsatisfied with my interaction with Mr. DeLuca, I sent another email to the UMBC officials I interacted with before. Dr. Leisey and I set up a meeting for December 17th. During this meeting my parents and I discussed the incident with Dr. Leisey, and she agreed that Mr. DeLuca’s response to my concerns was unacceptable. I requested a written apology from both Ms. Briscoe and Mr. DeLuca. Disappointingly, neither Ms. Briscoe nor Mr. DeLuca provided written apologies of their own volition. They both were prompted to draft apologies before they wrote them. Mr. Deluca’s apology, which was written on December 22nd (nearly two weeks after the incident occurred), was hollow. Its three brief paragraphs only vaguely address the implications of the incident itself and Mr. DeLuca’s initial response to it. Ms. Briscoe’s apology was similarly unsatisfactory. This apology, written on January 19, 2016 (almost six weeks after the incident occurred), consisted of just two run-on sentences written on a sheet of notebook paper.

Though this specific incident happened to me personally, the situation and Mr. DeLuca’s response are part of the larger issues of prejudice and discrimination. My story is just one of many. Even at UMBC, a school that prides itself on diversity, these issues are present. The biases that lead to acts of discrimination are usually deeply rooted. However, when issues of discrimination arise, it’s counterproductive to simply excuse these behaviors instead of addressing the factors that cause them. I believe the actions of both Mr. DeLuca and Ms. Briscoe in this situation were unacceptable, but the lesson that can be learned from them is extremely valuable. Their behaviors should serve as an example of how not to deal with biases. Nobody should ever be made to feel unwelcome or uncomfortable because of others’ negative ideas about them. Additionally when an instance of discrimination occurs, efforts to defend the offender’s actions shouldn’t be made. Everyone has a responsibility to be mindful that prejudices are detrimental to progress, and to challenge themselves and others to look past these ideas and instead judge others by their individual merits.

[Note: Ms. Briscoe has been relocated to UMBC’s other Outtakes location, where she works as a cashier]