03.10.07
Posted in culture, pet peeves at 2:24 pm by Brandon
***Disclaimer: The below represents my opinion, nothing more.***
Almost 2 years ago, I wrote a post about what I perceived to be racist practices at Blockbuster. It’s still my opinion that Blockbuster engages in racist practices, specifically their posting of a theft deterrent message in English and Spanish but not providing any other Spanish language translations on any other materials for their customers. But there’ve been quite a few folks who have wished ill on me for daring to speak my opinion about Blockbuster, others still think my understanding of the facts is incorrect. Fair enough, I have my opinion, they can certainly have theirs. The latest opinion, however, really struck me as, well, a bit amazing. Here it is:
Ok listen….i am a store manager at BBV. We put the signs up in both languages because it is required by law…ok BY LAW. So dont think BBV is racist, it is our government. I think you all should realize really quick that the same thing goes for all businesses with a safe on the grounds. I have to agree with our government. The statistics do show that most roberies are done by some sort of ethnic group other than white. Im not racist but if a bunch of mexicans looking suspisious walks into my store i will follow them and make sure my presence is known. This world is ran on diversity, just deal with the racism.
So here we have someone claiming to be a Blockbuster Video store manager. Interestingly, this person claims that signs are posted in both English and Spanish because the law requires this of places of business with safes on the grounds. I find this claim to be curious on a number of levels. First, I’ve noticed that there are video stores, some larger and likely have a greater daily fiscal income per store who are also likely have safes on the premises, but do not post this legally required sign. Second, if what this self-proclaimed blockbuster video store manager says is true, one should notice these signs ALL over the place. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, this is not the case. Now, I don’t know where this person claiming to be a store manager is from but I highly doubt that Grand Rapids, Michigan requires that all businesses with safes on their premises require theft deterrent signs to be printed in English and Spanish.
The statistics do show that most roberies are done by some sort of ethnic group other than white.
I’m curious to know which statistics you’re citing. Where can I find them? What organization or academic completed the research? In which peer reviewed journal did this work appear? What specifically are you interpreting as evidence that people of color commit more crimes than white people?
To me the most disturbing claim is this:
Im not racist but if a bunch of mexicans looking suspisious walks into my store i will follow them and make sure my presence is known.
Wow. I didn’t really expect to have my point made so well. Now, I must reiterate, I have no other evidence that this person actually works for Blockbuster other than their own admission that they do. However, if what they say is true, you’ve just witnessed a Blockbuster employee openly praising the practice of violating the civil rights of hispanic patrons.
I’d be curious to hear an official Blockbuster statement. Furthermore, if any Blockbuster representative would like to do a bit of fact checking about the rogue employee who posted on this blog, I’d be more than happy to turn over any information about this individual (i.e. IP address, email, etc).
Tags: Blockbuster Video, Racism
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Posted in culture, pet peeves at 2:24 pm by Brandon
***Disclaimer: The below represents my opinion, nothing more.***
Almost 2 years ago, I wrote a post about what I perceived to be racist practices at Blockbuster. It’s still my opinion that Blockbuster engages in racist practices, specifically their posting of a theft deterrent message in English and Spanish but not providing any other Spanish language translations on any other materials for their customers. But there’ve been quite a few folks who have wished ill on me for daring to speak my opinion about Blockbuster, others still think my understanding of the facts is incorrect. Fair enough, I have my opinion, they can certainly have theirs. The latest opinion, however, really struck me as, well, a bit amazing. Here it is:
Ok listen….i am a store manager at BBV. We put the signs up in both languages because it is required by law…ok BY LAW. So dont think BBV is racist, it is our government. I think you all should realize really quick that the same thing goes for all businesses with a safe on the grounds. I have to agree with our government. The statistics do show that most roberies are done by some sort of ethnic group other than white. Im not racist but if a bunch of mexicans looking suspisious walks into my store i will follow them and make sure my presence is known. This world is ran on diversity, just deal with the racism.
So here we have someone claiming to be a Blockbuster Video store manager. Interestingly, this person claims that signs are posted in both English and Spanish because the law requires this of places of business with safes on the grounds. I find this claim to be curious on a number of levels. First, I’ve noticed that there are video stores, some larger and likely have a greater daily fiscal income per store who are also likely have safes on the premises, but do not post this legally required sign. Second, if what this self-proclaimed blockbuster video store manager says is true, one should notice these signs ALL over the place. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, this is not the case. Now, I don’t know where this person claiming to be a store manager is from but I highly doubt that Grand Rapids, Michigan requires that all businesses with safes on their premises require theft deterrent signs to be printed in English and Spanish.
The statistics do show that most roberies are done by some sort of ethnic group other than white.
I’m curious to know which statistics you’re citing. Where can I find them? What organization or academic completed the research? In which peer reviewed journal did this work appear? What specifically are you interpreting as evidence that people of color commit more crimes than white people?
To me the most disturbing claim is this:
Im not racist but if a bunch of mexicans looking suspisious walks into my store i will follow them and make sure my presence is known.
Wow. I didn’t really expect to have my point made so well. Now, I must reiterate, I have no other evidence that this person actually works for Blockbuster other than their own admission that they do. However, if what they say is true, you’ve just witnessed a Blockbuster employee openly praising the practice of violating the civil rights of hispanic patrons.
I’d be curious to hear an official Blockbuster statement. Furthermore, if any Blockbuster representative would like to do a bit of fact checking about the rogue employee who posted on this blog, I’d be more than happy to turn over any information about this individual (i.e. IP address, email, etc).
Tags: Blockbuster Video, Racism
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Trackback URL »
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James said,
March 10, 2007 at 5:58 pm
I think the key here is early on in your post. I wouldn’t see any need to complain that an anti-theft sign is in both English and Spanish, so long as all the other signs were offered in Spanish too.
Unfortunately while that is the only sign in Spanish, it certainly appears like Blockbuster only see native Spanish speakers as potential thieves, not potential customers.
(Of course, there could be other aspects to that too, such as the fact that Blockbuster’s stock is ridiculously slanted towards recent Hollywood-produced, English-language fare. And then we could get into the weirdness of the Oscars having a category for ‘best picture in a foreign language’ when the USA doesn’t have a national language. But I was trying to be succinct.)
Mike said,
March 10, 2007 at 6:24 pm
I worked for 13 years at a grocery store in southwest Atlanta, GA, a predominantly African-American area, where I also lived, and I am white. Part of my job as a front-end supervisor was to keep an eye out for anything unusual and alert security if needed. Many times groups of young African-American teenagers came strolling through my store, and I never gave it a second thought; why would I? However, anytime a group of young white kids came strolling through, I immediately alerted security, and many times we caught them shoplifting. Racial profiling, or just being aware of the environment? Also, am I racist against whites? There were probably, and I am only going on very distant memory, more shoplifters caught in that store that were African-American than white, but that would only follow, since there were more African-Americans coming through the store on a consistent basis. there was a higher percentage though of whites being caught. It doesn’t take a PhD in statistical analysis to figure that out. I guess my point is, there are people of all races, etc., who do bad things, and there will always be racists of every color to spread their hatred, and try to infect others with it. If I work in retail, I’m going to watch out for the unusual, the suspicious, regardless of race or anything else.
Why can’t we all just get along?
Todd Gray said,
March 11, 2007 at 3:40 am
I agree with you here. In fact, when I was working as a general manager of a local video chain in California a couple years back, I strictly enforced a policy of providing dual-language, English-Spanish signage in all stores, and also Spanish-language customer support– not merely bilingual “warning signs” that label, as you and your commenters say, Latinos as potential thieves rather than potential customers. We also had a very large Spanish-language movie section (as well as great films from other places, with lots of Hindi Bollywood films and Chinese, German and French-language films).
And guess what? Latinos made up a large proportion of our customer base and helped us enormously to become profitable– and I’ll bet that we gained a lot of business at Blockbuster’s expense.
The point is, from a strictly business perspective– let alone a humanitarian and social one– it’s idiotic not to provide Spanish-language services and reach out to Latinos. Especially in states like California, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and Florida, which were seized from Mexico following the US-Mexican War (or in other wars, in the case of Florida), and where Spanish long predates English as a language of common, public usage.
Kevin said,
March 11, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Fortunately we only use Netflix and the sweet sweet socialism of the library. In the immortal words of David Bazan, “Bring those fuckers to their knees.”
señor jefe said,
March 12, 2007 at 9:43 am
Judging from the statement issued here, I’d almost guarantee that the signs this “manager” placed that were in English, were certainly misspelled, or at least grammatically incorrect.
But hey. Idiots are people too. After all, “this world is ran on diversity”…
Josh said,
March 12, 2007 at 11:46 am
I try to keep an open mind, but experience has unfortunately taught me to groan inwardly whenever a sentence begins with the phrase, “I’m not racist but…”
Brandon said,
March 12, 2007 at 12:32 pm
I agree Josh. Especially loud is my inward groan when the phrase that follows “I’m not a racist but…” is “…if a bunch of Mexicans looking suspicious walks into my store i will follow them and make sure my presence is known.”
wildwest said,
March 13, 2007 at 8:16 am
Josh,
That was going to be my comment! You beat me to it!
Kevin,
I love you!
The librarian
m.j. said,
March 19, 2007 at 6:47 pm
i understand the problem of racism and despise it as much as anybody else, but some people are so racially sensitive that they dwell on
insignificant and often unprovable problems, such as the topic at hand. while i can’t deny that you really could be onto something (heck, maybe the person responsible for sticker printing and placement really is a racist), any argument to such an effect is entirely speculative and derives its premises from vague observations, not facts. beyond that, if you really want to make a difference, i suggest tackling more relevant problems than the languages used on blockbuster’s stickers.
before going any farther, i would like to point out that i am not arguing in favor of the racist practices (if indeed they do exist) described in this blog. i am simply pointing out that your methods and evidence are incredibly insufficient in supporting your claim/argument. let me show you why i think so. . .
that’s a pretty lazy rebuttal. if you’re serious about making your point, you should find your own statistics that support your own argument, rather than insistently shifting the burden of proof onto the person you’re trying to convince. (i really doubt that you or he has seen any statistics regarding theft and race, especially specifically at blockbuster. if i’m wrong, please, provide us the spoils of your research.)
how can simply watching somebody in a place of business be considered a violation of civil rights? besides, he didn’t say “all mexicans,” he said mexicans that look suspicious. i would react the same around suspicious-looking people of all races, and i’d bet this guy does too; it just so happens that the topic is “mexicans and theft,” so there is a falsely perceived sense of hostility toward mexicans in his statement.
supporting your argument with ignorance, doubt, and speculation only makes it easier for discerning individuals to dismiss it as nonsense.
let me repeat that i am not denying the possibility of rasicm at blockbuster. i’m simply giving you some things to work on if you really want to provide us with a sufficient argument. self-righteous conjectures can only take you so far.
m.j. said,
March 19, 2007 at 7:03 pm
by the way, how shallow do you have to be to will ill upon a faithful employee who seems completely reasonable and is guilty of, at worst, not expressing himself as clearly as he could have?
shame on you.
badchristian, indeed.
Brandon said,
March 20, 2007 at 9:11 am
M.J.
It’s not intended to be a rebuttal at all. In fact, without looking at the nebulous statistics cited by my hit and run commenter, it’s hard for me to take them seriously. If I’m not allowed to assess the method by which those data were collected, how am I to have any confidence whatsoever in them. I merely asked where the statistics were coming from…I asked that the commenter cite his/her source. Hardly an overburden, I think.
I wrote:
You responded:
Okay fine. I highly doubt that Grand Rapids, MI requires that all businesses with safes on the premises require that theft deterrent signs are posted in English and Spanish because I’ve visited hundreds of businesses in the area many of which have safes on the premises and the ONLY location with dually printed signs in English and Spanish was Blockbuster. Either I’m to believe that NO OTHER places have safes, that ALL OTHER places with safes are in gross violation of the law, or that IT’S NOT THE LAW in GR, MI to have these signs on the door. Which sounds the most plausible to you?
Shame on me, indeed. If you’d like to run around believing that what this employee describes isn’t racism, then fine. I’m just not going to give myself such a luxury.
Christianity Blog said,
March 23, 2007 at 7:49 pm
maybe its just a case of they have seen who has been stealing and management has found the vast majority are spanish
Scott said,
April 13, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Oh right, the seldom spoken of 28th amendment to the Bill of Rights. The right of people to walk into private property and not be followed around.
Come on now.
Dangerous Christian said,
May 1, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Excellent piece, Brandon. Definitely “dangerous”.
I have a question for “MJ”. What if he/she were in another country where English was the minority language, walked into a popular store and saw that the only sign in English was an “anti-theft” sign? I think we’d be calling our embassy!
To me, the Blockbuster action is racist. Being African-American myself, I know all too well of being looked at with suspicious eyes. But since the chain is right-leaning, I’m not that all surprised.
No wonder I never opened an account with them!
Peace.
Loving god said,
July 14, 2007 at 6:25 pm
That’s definitly racism. I dress kinda dirty compared to other people. I know what it’s like to be followed around a store. I know people who know people who are career criminals. They go into stores and steal stuff for a living. They are all dressed in really clean brand new clothes. Becuase they get free clothes from the stores every day.
Crying Cadence said,
August 29, 2007 at 10:16 am
For all this to be true… You would have to ask if they would follow other races if they looked suspicious. Me personally, I would watch anyone who looked suspicous to me… And usually that is not based off of culteral differences as much as it is attitude. If you give off a dark (not skin color dark *L*) attitude that makes you a suspicious person- but, due to the fact this mixes God and politics- lets look at what Jesus says Love is- and LOVING others means…… TRUSTING, Patience and many other things- so, you decide. I know Paul said if you don’t have love, you are in trouble.