Abstract
Those who are familiar with the annals of social science research on race and ethnic relations in the United States will not need to read Michelle Dunlap's new book, Retail Racism: Shopping while Black or Brown in America, to learn that people of color continue to experience racially motivated mistreatment across a wide range of places of public accommodations, including, but certainly not limited to, restaurants, retail stores, grocery stores, entertainment venues, and hotel establishments. However, underrepresented in these annals are studies that present detailed reflections of the thoughts, raw emotions, reactions, and far-reaching consequences that stem from Black and Brown consumers’ experiences with marketplace mistreatment. What is often missing, in other words, are the victims’ unadulterated stories. But this is not the case in Dunlap's Retail Racism. Dunlap gives voice to the victims of retail racism, placing their stories front and center. This humanistic feature of the title makes it a worthwhile read for anyone interested in deepening their understanding of the racially disparate treatment that people of color continue to experience in the marketplace.
Inspired by an incident that has plagued her for twenty-five years involving an eight-year-old extended family member who was arrested and prosecuted for stealing two $1.00 packs of sports cards while in her care, Dunlap solicited stories of marketplace racial discrimination from nineteen “memory-tellers” from across the country. To promote awareness, enhance sensitivities, and advocate for social change, these stories are organized into four thematic sections of the book (monitoring, inequities, traumas, and philosophies). Following an informative introductory chapter wherein Dunlap foreshadows twelve lessons learned from the memory-tellers about racism in the marketplace, detailed accounts are presented that highlight the quintessential and paradoxical experience of being subjected to hyper-surveillance due to being presumed—of course—to be shoplifters rather than shoppers, while simultaneously being overlooked, ignored, and denied hospitable customer service. In contrast to the oft-purported subtle, covert, and virtually undetectable nature of modern or colorblind racism, many of Dunlap's respondents articulated experiences with overt racially-motivated mistreatment in the marketplace—a form of racism that is thought by many to have died with Jim Crow. One memory-teller, for instance, became so angry by the over-surveillance of her movements that she felt like telling the security guard, “You are so poor at what you do—it’s so obvious—you need to stop following me around . . . I am not going to steal anything” (p. 47). Given the blatant nature of many incidents of disparate mistreatment articulated in Retail Racism, the feelings of anger, frustration, humiliation, sadness, and disappointment that are embodied in the memory-tellers’ accounts are understandable, albeit disheartening.
In the second section of Retail Racism, “Inequities,” Dunlap presents recollections collectively underscoring that if you are a person of color, you may be subjected to a different set of rules and policies than your White counterparts when navigating public places. Janisha, a twenty-one-year-old Black woman, for instance, reflecting on her experiences while working as a grocery store clerk while finishing college, recalls a Black mother's request to return baby formula that she had recently purchased. Despite providing a receipt the request was denied by the shift manager because the store had a no-returns policy. Despite this “policy,” on a prior occasion Janisha had observed a middle-aged White woman's request to return formula that had expired be granted without even providing a receipt.
The memory-tellers’ stories presented in the third section, “Traumas,” capture the trauma that stems from some experiences with racism while engaging in what should be mundane market activities. Some incidents, that is, “go way beyond minor inconveniences, microaggressions, anxieties, and minor or major frustrations, and instead escalate to the point of becoming a potential threat to [Black and Brown people’s] emotional, physical, or mortal survival . . . experiences so intense that they [rightfully] would be considered physically or emotionally traumatic” (p. 139). Among these stories is Dunlap's own psychologically traumatic event wherein she, along with her 8-year-old son, encountered “a lifelike, adult-sized barefoot human figure hanging from a tree with a noose around his neck” (p. 185) while walking down a Halloween “fright trail” at a community harvest festival in the southern United States. The lynching reenactment “looked like something out of the back woods of the early to mid-1900s” (p. 185) and left her physically and emotionally shaken. Readers of Retail Racism are likely to find the stories in this section to be emotionally taxing, largely because the incidents described are so egregious, sad, and, for some (White) readers, unfathomable.
In the final thematic section of the book, “Philosophies,” the memory-tellers offer readers a glimpse into their experience-based understanding of race and racism in the American marketplace. While many White people may fail to recognize and acknowledge the privileges that their perceived race affords them in society, the stories in this section highlight an acute awareness among those who have such privileges denied—an awareness that they are not able to simply shop, dine out, or otherwise access public places but must do so as a Black or Brown person living in a society where Black and Brown bodies are explicitly and implicitly devalued. The stories further underscore an equally acute understanding of the systemic and durable nature of contemporary racism. For instance, one of Dunlap's respondents explains that “you can take a piece of wood and sand it down, and until you get to the last piece of wood, you are still going to get the grains inside of the wood. That's society, that's racism in this country, it is ingrained in every fiber of our being” (p. 228).
The stories presented in Retail Racism, along with Dunlap's insightful commentary throughout, will unequivocally enhance people's awareness of and sensitivities to the continuing significance of race in the marketplace. Further, with the aim of advocating for social change, Dunlap concludes each thematic section of the book by identifying things that consumers and business owners or operators can do to promote a free market that is truly free for everyone, regardless of the hue of their skin. I think readers will find that Dunlap successfully met her stated aims with Retail Racism. Despite the many strengths of this book, I would have liked to see a greater engagement with the large extant interdisciplinary literature on race and ethnic discrimination in public places. While Dunlap draws from the extant academic literature to some degree in order to frame and situate the memory-tellers’ accounts, she misses an opportunity to conclude the book with a thoughtful discussion that links the stories and the themes they embody back to extant theory and scholarship. Given the absence of such a discussion, after reading Retail Racism some readers may be left asking how the raw accounts of racially motivated mistreatment in the marketplace that Dunlap presents support, challenge, or otherwise contribute to the existing knowledge base on race and racism in America.
In closing, with this review I have attempted to provide a window into the memory-tellers’ accounts of racism while navigating the marketplace. Realistically, however, my efforts have fallen short. The stories are so rich and multifaceted that my review, at best, offers only a small window with opaque glass into the thoughts, emotions, reactions, and far-reaching consequences stemming from the experiences of racial mistreatment in the marketplace that are shared in this book. As such, I encourage academics and non-academics alike to read Dunlap's book themselves so that they too can hear the voices of the memory-tellers firsthand.