Shopping, Dining, Using a Credit Card While Black

Newsweek Magazine ^ | December 9, 2014 | Bernard J. Tyson, chairman and CEO, Kaiser Permanente.

[2ndDivisionVet]

With the entire country seeing demonstrations following the Ferguson decision, I’ve had colleagues and business partners ask me my thoughts—not from my perspective as the chairman and CEO of a $55 billion organization—but as a black man in America.

You would think my experience as a top executive would be different from a black man who is working in a retail or food-service job to support his family. Yet, he and I both understand the commonality of the black male experience that remains consistent no matter what the economic status or job title.

This piece is not to complain about what is, but instead offer hope that we can harness the positive energy from the demonstrations for change and start a new chapter in America based on better understanding of race relations.

As Americans, we must deal with behavior that is unacceptable in today’s global world. The first step in changing negative behavior is to understand the underlying imagery of the black male, which doesn’t represent reality. Whether it’s Michael Brown in Ferguson, Trayvon Martin with his Skittles, Eric Garner who died after a choke hold, or the 12-year-old killed because he was waving a toy gun, when you see a black man killed, the imagery is more complicated than one might think. For example, words used by the white police officer to describe Michael Brown included some such as hulking and demon—words that bring up images going back to the days of slavery....

[Vendome]

Funny thing was that was never my intention.

I simply wanted to exchange the shoes and go shopping.

I still buy the salesman who helped me.

[cynwoody]

So...whose credit card was it?

He probably qualifies for one of these:

It's made of anodized titanium, not plastic.