Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !
Still working through white US history.
Q: Why are so many Black folk early adopters of tech like Uber and Amazon? Sometimes this willingness to try new tech early backfires on y'all, like the whole crypto scam. Tech companies don't always love you back. So... why so eager? Is it because of Deltron 3030 and André 3000? 🤔You're... you're going to say racism aren't you?
A: Yep! Racism. And go ahead and add Sears to that list of "technology" companies.
1/N
Because racism is baked into so much of US society, institutions that work well for white folk don't work as well for Black folk. We often end up paying way higher fees for way worse service.
Because of this, new tech doesn't have to be better than existing tech's average case to be attractive to Black folk. It just has to be better than existing tech's bottom 5% of cases! Because that's what existing tech gives us. 🤡
And a big factor: the daily trauma of experiencing racism takes its toll. Black folk in the US aren't rich, but have always been willing to pay a premium just to avoid a little racism. This part of the Black tax is real money.
Let's start with the Sears, a Chicago company. In the South, stores in places like Alabama and Mississippi used to be off-limits for Black customers. And when Black customers were finally allowed in, they often had to wait until white customers have finished shopping.
If there was only one of an item left, store staff would take it from a Black customer and give it to a white one. Black customers were sometimes charged more for the same item. Shopping under Jim Crow sucked.
And Black clerks did this to Black customers too. This wasn't just "I as a clerk am racist against you individually." This was individual employees operating in a racist system of shopping.
Then along comes Sears Roebuck Company from Chicago, with their mail order catalog! ♥️👍🏿
Yes, mail order is inconvenient. You can't see the items before they arrive. You have to pay postage, and shipping. There was no "UPS overnight" back then.
But the US postal service doesn't ship Jim Crow. Pay a little Black tax, avoid the daily indignities of shopping under Jim Crow.
Sears was better for Black customers in the south, and 20% of the south is Black. Good for business! 🤑
Black customers helped Sears grow, and helped mail order shopping become a big thing. It also destroyed the margins of the most racist stores in the South, by providing a viable alternative. It helped drive them out of business.
Some execs at Sears wanted to lean into their Black customer base, because they realized that half of their white customers had no problem with it, and that "All Black folk + half a white folk" is a much bigger market than "No Black folk + the other half of white folk."
But racism is just too delicious, and "the other half of white folk" were over-represented in Sears executive leadership. 🤷🏿♂️
Let's talk about rideshare and Uber, and why I was the biggest Uber fan on planet Earth in the company's early days. Seriously. Uber folks may have been super pumped, but I was super duper pumpty dumped!
I had to travel to NYC for work, and took a cab from my hotel to midtown Manhattan. After work, I tried to take a cab back to my hotel, which was also in Manhattan.
I stood for almost 30 minutes, as every cab passed me and went to a white person.😮
I eventually paid a homeless white skater kid five bucks to hail a cab for me.
NYC cabs don't pick up Black riders at the end of the day. Because they know that most Black folk live in Brooklyn. A rider with a $5 fare might leave a $5 tip, but a rider with a $50 fare is unlikely to leave a $50 tip. So during rush hour, cabbies make more money doing lots of short Manhattan trips, than one long trip to Brooklyn.
Black cabbies avoid Black folk during rush hour too. Yes, there are straight up racist cabbies. But a lot of it is just this. People have known about this phenomenon since the 50s, and no one did anything significant about it. Because people are okay with the fact that yellow cabs just don't work as well for Black people in NYC. 🤷🏿♂️
I started using Uber, and my racist transportation problems disappeared entirely. Uber could have been double the price of yellow cabs and I would have still used it.
Again, statistically, it is guaranteed that I have taken a ride from an individually racist Uber driver! Doesn't matter. If they had a confederate flag, they kept it in the glove box. Rush Limbaugh was not on their radio when I got in.
Uber was better for Black passengers, and 25% of NYC is Black. 🤑
Instead of competing on improving service for Black riders, yellow cab folk tried to limit Uber. Instead of competing on improving service for Black in-person customers, Jim Crow era stores tried to limit mail order catalogs.
(At this point, someone is fighting the urge to derail this thread into how they don't like Uber, or classification of drivers as employees, or VC funded loss leaders, or medallion prices. I wish them strength!)
Let's talk about Best Buy vs Amazon, shoplifting, and loss prevention. The goal of loss prevention should not be to stop folk from stealing from the store. It should be to reduce risk to the business. Theft is one risk. Losing customers is another risk.
We're too deep into Black history month for me to explain that most of the people accused of and arrested for shoplifting are Black, but most of the people that shoplift are white. If that's still controversial, go back to Feb 1 and start over.
I will say that you should ask Black US dudes if they've ever been followed around by clerks in a store while white women shoplift, completely unbothered.🤡 🙋🏿♂️
I will also say that you should ask loss prevention experts if they know that cosmetics and razors are two of the most commonly shoplifted items. They'll say yes. Then ask them what color the razors that are most frequently stolen are. Then ask any man the exact brand and shade of his partner's foundation or eyeliner. They don't know. 🤷🏿♂️
I will explain that as a Black dude, going into an electronics store, paying over $1,000 for something, being accused of shoplifting it, and presenting my receipt while a cop stands next to me with his hand on his gun, is not good customer service.
I'll also explain that being followed around a store is not fun or cute. Being denied returns more than other customers, also not cute.
We know who shoplifts. It's not based on race or income. Go check on Winona Ryder.
I'd rather go into the store, look at TVs and laptops, leave the store without buying anything, and then order it online. Saving $50 because the online retailer has it for cheaper, is an extra bonus.
I'd rather buy from a place that has a consistent, less racially biased return policy.
People urging customers to "buy local!" don't bother to say how they're making this local shopping experience better for Black customers.
Amazon and their companies like Zappos, have great return policies. 🤑
One the one hand the USA is an advanced country, Richest in the world, reading things like this and, about guns, what the republicans are doing with books etc, Makes me wonder sometimes if the USA is just putting on a good act,
Granted the USA is sending people to the moon in 2025, other than that the above just makes it look so backwards it is unbelievable for those of us out side the USA, who don't experience this.
