London
is one of the most diverse cities in the world. With a long history of settled
black communities you would expect that our city would be at ease with itself with
such a long standing history of multicultralism.
But scratch the surface of
these glib statements and another reality becomes all too apparent. Young black
people face a routine and unacceptable level of discrimination within the City
of London retail shopping and business areas, in employment within London's financial
services sector.
Here
is a tale on twitter of one such young man's experience as he tried to simply
upgrade his phone in the London 02 store, Cheapside.
I have
summarised a lengthy number of tweets from
@Eddie_Fiasco
as he described his experience of
02 retail racism;
At 3.23 Eddie exited Canon Street Station and
walked into 02 store. A young black business owner, he wanted to upgrade his phone to
the iphone 6.
He was
advised by the 02 sales assistant on what was
required and told he would need a bank statement. So Eddie enquired as to where
the nearest Barclays Bank was and set off to get a statement.
He then printed
off all the necessary information and headed back to 02.
When
arrived he presented the documentation, but was surprised to be told he then needed
to provide more credentials,such as company letterhead, in order to prove he owned
their business.
Eddie promptly
called his office and had a business letter head sent to over to him.
The
store then started to process the application and he sat paitently waiting.
Ubeknowns to them them
store manager had secretly called the police, suspecting that Eddie was a
fraudster.
To
Eddie’s shock and horror, two City of London Police Officers entered the and
began to question these young businessmen. Satisfied they were legitimate, they
left.
The store manager then had the termerity to tell Eddie, that he had
called the police as a precautionary measure, before he had even checked the
authenticity of their credentials!
After
waiting between 2/3 hours they were refused a contract despite providing all
the necessary paperwork.
Eddie,
now outraged asked for an apology and was refused.
Having
suffered this disgraceful racism he left the store.
As he left they
suffered on more humiliation, they were offered a ‘chocolate bar’ by 02 by way
of reparation.
This is what racial profiling looks like. The police were called for Eddie because
he was a young black man.
The police were called with no objective evidence of
criminality, they were called prior to the 02 store manager having checked
their credentials.
Such
is the racism young black people face everyday in the City Of London and as an eager, young business man, Eddie suffered this total humiliation
all because of the attitude and prejudice of the store manager.
Here's
is a young black businessmen, striving for success, being
treated as if he were nothing more than a common criminal.
Do 02 have a policy for calling
the police when black people walk in their stores?
Do they monitior the
ethnicity of their customers and the service they receive?
How many complaint of
racist treatment have 02 had from black customers?
Whilst
London remains the pre-eminent diversity capital of the 21st
Century, the City of London retail and financial services sector, remains a strong
bastion of white privilege and naked race discrimination.
We remain economically excluded from the City. Its time we took matters
into our own hands and ended retail racism and broke down the doors of
employment discrimination in the City.
I
suggest we complain to both 02 and Ofcom, the phone regulator and ensure they get the
message that such behavior is entirely unacceptable.
02 Customer Service
0800
977 7337
Ofcom
Riverside
House
2a
Southwark Bridge Road
London
SE1 9HA
Switchboard:
020 7981 3000
Complaints:
020 7981 3040
(9am-5pm
Monday to Friday),
Textphone:
020 7981 3043 or
0300
123 2024
