Canada: Thompson man says he was racially profiled at Walmart, told he looked 'like the type of person who drinks'

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Victoria33

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First Nations means Native American for Canada. Walmart, someone in the organization needs to do some apologizing and likely other measures on this, I can empathize with how he said he felt, “appalled, angry and hurt”. Please see article:

Thompson man says he was racially profiled at Walmart, told he looked ‘like the type of person who drinks’​

Wayne Constant says he was ‘appalled’ and hurt after being told he couldn’t come into northern Manitoba store
Marianne Klowak · CBC News · Posted: Jul 04, 2020

A First Nations man says he’s angry and hurt after being racially profiled at a Thompson store where he’s shopped for years — and the advocacy group that represents northern Manitoba First Nations says his story isn’t unique.

Wayne Constant, 56, says he stopped by the Thompson Walmart after work on June 29 to pick up dog food and drinks. He was dressed casually in track pants, a Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation golf jacket and running shoes. He was taken aback when a security guard stopped him from entering.

“He put his hand up and said, ‘You look like the type of person who drinks and I can’t allow you to shop in Walmart,’” said Constant.
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I don’t know about all of us but I think a lot of us might feel treated this way every so often. Walmart should make amends somehow. I"m not sure what.
 
I disagree, I don’t think many of us have felt this way. What they did to this man and to others is appalling. The manager should be fired for their behavior and the security guard as well. Their roles are not to make judgements on what people may have been doing before they got to the store. They are to deal only in a shoppers behavior in the store. Clearly, the man was not even in the store yet, and he was not drunk. He was targeted, and not because there was any real indication he had been drinking.
 
I’m happy for you if you have never been through something like this, however, that is just your experience.

The guard may have had some sort of instruction. I understand a bit of what they are dealing with but still.
 
Walmart likely gets complaints like this regularly and no doubt has protocols in place to apologize and deal with staff if they’re acting inappropriately. If there’s an entire advocacy group dealing with this, I’m sure they’re in talks with Walmart already.

If it bothers anyone reading the article, they are free to not shop at Walmart or to write a letter to Walmart’s corporate management.

As for “a lot of us might feel treated this way”, I’m not a racial minority so it doesn’t happen to me. That doesn’t mean I don’t care when it happens to others, simply that I can’t be equating my own experience as a white European-American to that suffered by indigenous peoples in Canada.
 
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Victoria33 said:
I’m happy for you if you have never been through something like this, however, that is just your experience.
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Of course it is my experience.

I didn’t say it doesn’t happen to anyone. I was saying that even though it doesn’t happen to most people, it is wrong and it is appalling that anyone would treat someone that way.

I don’t know what you think I was saying, but that is what I meant.
 
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