Long story short, I am in the store asking this this AA guy all types of questions about TVs, whte guy comes up to me who I used to work with, asked me the usual where you workin', what ever happened to...etc and then leaves.

All of a sudden AA dude validates my existence as if talking to a white person validated me?

WTF?!?!? And this has happened to me more than once.....what about you guys?

No, that has never happened to me. Could you give us more insight into the conversation and the AA guy's reaction?

Absolutely nothing that related to the AA salesperson.

The white guy was just talking about former work collegues at a place he and I once worked. THe AA salesperson treated me as if I was invisible. Then after the white guy finishes his conversation....boom AA sales person speaks to me instantly yet ignored me when I was there in his dpeartment for 15 minutes before.

This is not the first time somethng like this has happened to me. Maybe it is me but it seems like some of our people think we are "visible" or worthy of talking too if we know white people. LOL

Maybe its one of them things like he assumed your a regularly old leroy jones and that your just another runin the mill black person, but if he see's you speaking to a white person he might take the stance that you are worthy and have a higher stance or status because you obviously know another white person.

@Unexpected

Nahhh - that's just plain ****ed up.

Some people can be really shallow like that.

That type of behaviour simply sickens me.

It's like another variant of superficial.

Can't stand any person (of any ethnic origin) who behaves like that.

I will forever champion my "we are all the same, we all bleed, we all human" argument.owerowerower

This example demonstrates how unnecessarily ****ed up some people are.

@Safety - I would have questioned his sudden interest in my custom very curtly.

Maybe he thought you would be more likely to complain about bad service than, as unexpected pleasure put it, a regular run of the mill leroy jones.

Race aside, it has been my experience that you are likely to get better customer service if a) they think you will spend lots of money (some work on commission) b) they think you will be a returning customer (can't alienate you) or c) are likely to kick up a stink and complain (won't look good to other customers or their boss).

Unfortunatly it seems to be the case that some store people do not believe that Blackcustomers fall into any of these categories.

I had an instance where i went to a perfume shop. I knew exactly what i wanted but it was behind the counter. I was looking right at it and i was stood there for a good while so it was obvious that i was not just browsing. There were three shop assistance stood in the corner giggling and gossiping. Not one asked if they could help or offered to serve me. It was an extremely small store so its not as if they couldn't see me. I was maybe four feet away. I took my custom elsewhere and will continue to do so. Yes, i could have asked to be served. But it was a very small shop and i was looking from this specific produce to them, so obviously i wanted to buy this product, yet the three continued to ignor me.

So yes, some shop assisstants will simply ignor you unless you fall into one of the three categories.

It should, but doesn't surprise me that it took you knowing a white person to improve this guys attitude.

Just our reality - a bit like getting away with your English accentwith a slave/colonial surname until they see your face. You can see though where a white spouse can save you loads of time and get you on your way quicker.

Come to think of it, I don’t think I have been many times that I've actually been served by a polite and friendly ‘young’ Black member of staff in any situation, there’s always seems to be some negative attitude that goes with it, maybe I'll see some difference as I travel more.

So often I see a bad attitude coming from young Black staff in stores, I don’t know why this is or what they think they are achieving other than costing themselves commission or even their jobs, but its sadly something that I've heard commented on before.
A Black South African friend of mine used to comment about getting ignored by a guy in the local supermarket at one of the counters, so she made a point of being served by him till he did take notice, and then she said it looked as though he just didnt want to acknowledge anyone else Black in-case some White person noticed or something.

what I get normally is bad attitude from female salespeople....who look like me......regardless of what part of the world they were born....don't really get it from dudes....

I'll say this, regardless of AA, African, Caribeen, etc...or mexican, indian, chinese..etc..
in my experience....a lot o fpeople buy into this caste system that mainstream society constructs....and they look at whites as being on the top......and they are somewhere below that.....and they accept it...and they also view others as being below them on the totem pole......whether it's another black person due to country of origin, "assumed wealth/education" ,accent,gender.etc... or another race of people..

they are so glad to not(in their minds) be at the bottom of the pole, that they buy into it..... and they are lifelong pet dog to the people who they view as superior to them...

Be more specific lol

Older women in sales or service are lovely. I had a problem with my bank and the white guy attending me was not really paying attention, asking me stupidness. TheNigerian lady next to him took over of her own volition and took me to a room where we talked it out, she got on the phone and cussed down a next department who were messing around. Took time out and sorted everything nicely. Stuck in my mind.

Problem is some younger womens in those jobs. The immedietly assume I'm after them and get all cold defensively when all I want is a pair of jeans or whatever... Most brothers I've experienced in sales are all chatty chatty lol