Black Lives Matter: Supermarket shelves spark racism debate

One photo shows black hair products locked in a glass cupboard while other hair products were simply left on open shelves. Photo / Twitter, Jesús A. Rodríguez

A photo of two United States supermarket shelves has sparked a debate online, with many arguing the post sums up the everyday racism that exists towards black people.

Race and unconscious bias towards people of colour has been a hot-button issue since video of black Minneapolis man George Floyd's death went viral earlier this month.

Four police officers have now been charged over his killing, with outrage over Mr Floyd's death sparking Black Lives Matter protests across the United States and countries around the world, including Australia and New Zealand.

Jesús A. Rodríguez posted two photos to Twitter showing hair care products for African-American hair behind a glass cabinet, while other hair products sat on an open shelf.

"It's more than just the police," Mr Rodríguez captioned the two photos and it was quickly retweeted more than 180,000 times.

The tweet attracted hundreds of responses, with many saying it was one of the best examples of the unconscious bias that exists towards black people.

Let's acknowledge that the issue is not the stores locking up high theft products, but why those products are high theft. They are frequently stolen because people can't afford them, right? Why can't people afford them? They live in disadvantaged communities.

— Rachel 🦋 (@muffinbutt0107) June 9, 2020

the products that are locked and chained up are the ones that are specifically targeted at natural black hair; implication being that the store owners expect black people to steal hair products pic.twitter.com/1t2HkSWwPu

— 🐊 Smeallie (@KyleSmeallie) June 8, 2020

I worked at a retail store that just opened that did this.
The reasoning is not (as some people keep saying) "because these items have been stolen, so they do it to prevent further theft."
This is done EXPLICITLY to keep black people from shopping in these stores.

— SUN (43 days) (@sun_cel) June 9, 2020

But others claimed it wasn't an issue of race, saying that big US chains like Walmart would often have extra security for items if they were frequently stolen from a store.

Soon others were sharing other instances of products for sale in stores that appeared to show bias towards people of colour.

Yea this is victimhood gone too far. Former loss prevention officer at Wal-Mart. They keep track of high theft items so if something is behind glass it means it got stolen a lot in the past.

— bruh (@kabalzo) June 9, 2020

One person posted a TikTok video of how sunscreen for darker skin was displayed behind a pillar despite plenty of room on other shelves.

Today at target 😡 pic.twitter.com/IZxkzzChGI

— Amber Desiree (@TheAmber_Show) June 9, 2020

This was in 2018, at Walmart in my very white hometown 🤦🏽‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/SbUC629i0n

— Kassi (@ksmith5200) June 9, 2020

The Twitter debate comes as George Floyd's funeral took place this week and protests continue across the country.

More than 500 mourners wearing face masks to protect against the coronavirus packed a Houston church a little more than two weeks after Mr Floyd was pinned to the pavement by a white Minneapolis police officer who put a knee on his neck for what prosecutors said was 8 minutes and 46 seconds.

In the past two weeks, amid the furore over Mr Floyd's death, sweeping and previously unthinkable things have taken place: Confederate statues have been toppled, and many cities are debating overhauling, dismantling or cutting funding for police departments.

Authorities in some places have barred police from using chokeholds or are otherwise rethinking policies on the use of force.

Some of the mostly peaceful demonstrations that erupted after Mr Floyd's death were marked by bursts of arson, assaults, vandalism and smash-and-grab raids on businesses, with more than 10,000 people arrested.

But protests in recent days have been overwhelmingly peaceful.

– With AP