8:51 p.m. - 2008-02-02
privilege
We went to Dave and buster's tonight for a slightly belated January birthdays party. My family has two group birthday parties each year - January and May because 90% of us have birthdays in one of those two months. It was fun and Kevin and I (mostly Kevin) kicked butt in this trivia game and in a matter of about 10 minutes got over 500 tickets. We went to the prize room to se if we wanted to cash in which we did not and on the way in I set off the beeper thing. On the way out, I also set it off and I stood there for like 10 seconds looking at the employees like "Ummm, do you need to like check and make sure I didn't steal anything?" But no one even looked at me so after a good long pause, I slowly started to leave and then this employee leans over the counter and is like "Hey! Hey!" I stop and look at him and he doesn't say anything. So I wait. And he keps checking someone else out. So I wait. I finally say to him "Umm, do you want to like check my bag or something?" and really seriously, almost like he's disappointed in me or something, he goes "Yeah. I think we're gonna have to." So I start to come back through the door and he says "Well, that's the exit. You can't come back in that way." So I say "Ok. Should I go back around to the entrance?" And he says "Yes." So I walk all the way around all of these people and come in the entrance, set off the buzzers again, and stand by the counter. He starts checking out the next person. I wait. No one else pays any attention to me, the obvious criminal prize stealer. This other employee is standing right next to me and I say "Umm, I set the buzzer off." He goes "Ok.' And I say "That guy told me to come back in." He asks "Who?" I point to him. The other guy laughs and goes "You're fine. Just go." I was like "He's not going to like come and hunt me down or something?" And he says "No, I think you're ok." The funny part to me is that we had over 800 "points" or whatever, so with the exception of like the Guitar Hero bundle that is like ten thousand points, we could have gotten just about anything we wanted without spending any actual money. But we didn't see one single thing that either of us were the slightest bit interested in. It's like, i wouldn't steal anything there because it's wrong. But I also didn't want anything.
The other side of this is that I regularly set off these types of buzzers. And no one ever stops me. The check out people at Target look at me and wave me on my way. I guess I don't look like I steal. But what's that all about? Is it because I'm white? Female? Old enough to know better? Because I'm dressed neatly? Do I have an "honest" face?
If I had been one of the numerous urban street-wear clad young black males at Dave and Busters, would they have sent security to strip search me for a hidden whoopee cushion or D & B logo pen?
