‘Shopping while black’: former news anchor’s daughter tagged ‘shoplifter’
Casey Parham says she was just shopping for a new wallet in a South Carolina resort shop when one clerk turned to another woman and said, “Shoplifter.”
Unfortunately for that clerk, Parham’s mother is Rene Syler, the former CBS and WFAA/Channel 8 anchor, and Syler decided to tell the world.
Although the family lives in New York, they have a home south of Charleston. The teen and friend, who happens to be white, rode to the Carolina Girls store on bicycles and didn’t expect what happened.
–‘Shopping while black’: When simply being African-American becomes a crime
After the incident, her mother said “Here’s this bright, shiny college girl with a great smile, and that’s the first thing they think?” she wrote at goodenoughmother.com.
“Every African-American can remember an experience where the innocence was lost, where the color of their skin made a difference when they were just walking, or driving, or shopping,” she later added in a phone interview. “I never expected that here.”
“The idea that somebody would say something like that out loud and laugh — that’s what bullies do,” she said.
–Can ‘shopping while black’ become a thing of the past?
At first, the store responded by saying “We are very sad to see these comments,” before going on to apologize “for anything … that upset your daughter.” “They acted as if nothing happened and nothing was wrong,” Syler said.
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