Boes - Winnipeg, Manitoba R3G 0W4 (CF Polo Park Shopping Centre)

Racism | by Joe on Nov 21, 2018

So my sister and I went to Polo Park today and we went into Boes. At first we were greeted with a hello from the one worker as she finished with a customer already in the store. I moved on to look at the wallets as I bought one from our wonderful Home Hardware here in Selkirk and I have misplaced my straps. So as I was looking a secobd young lady comes out of the backand she stopped and looked at me and asked if she could help me. I asked her if she knew if they had maybe extra straps in the back that I could purchase or if she knew how I could go about getting a new set. She looked at me like deer in headlights and and said "sorry but I don't have any idea". So I looked at her and said okay. she went on with whatever she was doing and I continued on looking. within a moment or two she was behind me with the other worker and they were whispering. At first I didn't take it as anything. Then they started talking in normal voices and then they asked again if they could assist my sister and I with anything. We said no we're just looking. They both stood behind us as we look throughout the store with their arms crossed facing us and whispering. My sister then was going to purchase a bag for herself and she was going to help purchase one as a Christmas gift for somebody else. As she approached the original lady he said hello to us they both seem to have made faces at my sister and once again it was like deer in headlights. I don't know about you, but when I received this type of response to me I feel like it's racially motivated. I don't like to go towards that direction but one of my gut is telling me that there's something more, I need to listen to it. At this point it was like they were hesitant to assist my sister so she turned around and told them to keep their bag and called out to me that she was done shopping. When we got into the hallway I saw the look on her face and realized that more had happened to her. When she told me how they treated her and reacted to her request to ring her stuff upI informed her that that was not the first time I was treated like that in that store. I overlooked it the time or two before because I can take things quite personal and I can get offencive because of my past experiences. So now that I am not the only one who has experienced this and unfortunately my sister has to, my gut was right. I'm informing my Facebook friends of this because I think we should stand together and solidarity to stand up against racism, big or small.