By Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
April 2, 2013
When I was a young teenager, my parents gave me some money to buy a new outfit at Sears. We didn’t live too far from there, so I walked over by myself. I was always careful with money, so I looked at the items I was interested in, compared prices and then tried a few things on before selecting the final item I wanted to purchase.
The cashier looked at the woman standing behind me. It turned out that the woman was a plainclothes security guard whose job it was to profile and trail people who were likely to shoplift. I’m not sure why I was pegged. Because I was a teenager? Because I wasn’t white? (It wasn’t because I was dressed “poor,” because my mother always made sure our clothes were clean and nice.)
I didn’t carry a purse and didn’t have a shopping bag, so there was nowhere to stash any potential stolen items. It was summer, so I wasn’t wearing a thick sweater or coat. And I was rail thin back then, so anything I may have had hidden underneath my clothes would’ve shown.
After asking me a few questions, they insisted on calling my parents to make sure I hadn’t stolen the $20 bill I had in my pocket. That was that. This was in the late 1970s.
About 10 years later, I was working as a reporter at a major daily newspaper in Chicago. After work one day, my friends and I went to go look for sales at Neiman Marcus, because that’s the only way we could afford to buy anything there. After we used their bathroom, one of the saleswomen came running after me. (Not us. Me.) She accused me of writing graffiti on one of the bathroom stalls. She didn’t know which stall I had used. She didn’t see me do it (because I hadn’t). But she was positive that it was me, rather than any of the other people who had used the restroom. They were all white. I was the only minority.
The fact that I was a reporter was the only thing that saved me from more harassment. This was in the late 1980s.
These things are mild instances. I’m lucky that I’m a member of the “model minority.” One of my husband’s friends—a scientist with a PhD from a prestigious university—was stopped for driving an expensive car in a fancy neighborhood. Never mind that it was his car and his neighborhood. He was stopped for driving while black. He was taken out of his car and handcuffed. He had done NOTHING wrong. This was in the early part of the 21st century.
My nephews have been harassed for being in areas “they shouldn’t be in.” One police officer, who was trying to apprehend a Hispanic 5-foot-5ish assailant, stopped my 6-foot-4 Korean-American nephew, convinced that he might be the right suspect. The officer repeatedly asked him, “What are you?” This was in the past 12 months.
When will it get better?
© 2013 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
it won’t get better, but we can do better by voicing it
Honestly, this kind of thing really really scares me. Especially for your nephew. That’s terrifying.
When we first moved to our neighborhood, the security guards and police always questioned my dad why he was there =_=
This makes me so sad. The fact that you have to prove your innocence each time 🙁
Sorry you had to experience that. Horrible.
I can testify that on or about 1979, an Arlington Heights (long gone) police officer told me that a black person seen in Arlington Heights was automatically considered to be guilty.
On the other hand, I was once looking for a party at a loft in Chicago, somewhere in what was a “bad” area at the time (1973). I was stopped by the police because “It is unusual to see a white person in the area”.
Eh, don’t sweat it Jae. I was accused of shoplifting several times too. Likely because I was a bit on the “hyper-active” side but was never EVER a thief or destructive. Why was I singled out?? Well, in hindsight I have concluded that the mall cops probably did not leave better paying jobs at the FBI. I did not feel that way at the time though.