Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !

Still working through white US history.

Q: Why are so many Black folk early adopters of tech like Uber and Amazon? Sometimes this willingness to try new tech early backfires on y'all, like the whole crypto scam. Tech companies don't always love you back. So... why so eager? Is it because of Deltron 3030 and André 3000? 🤔You're... you're going to say racism aren't you?

A: Yep! Racism. And go ahead and add Sears to that list of "technology" companies.

1/N

#BlackMastodon

Because racism is baked into so much of US society, institutions that work well for white folk don't work as well for Black folk. We often end up paying way higher fees for way worse service.

Because of this, new tech doesn't have to be better than existing tech's average case to be attractive to Black folk. It just has to be better than existing tech's bottom 5% of cases! Because that's what existing tech gives us. 🤡

And a big factor: the daily trauma of experiencing racism takes its toll. Black folk in the US aren't rich, but have always been willing to pay a premium just to avoid a little racism. This part of the Black tax is real money.

Let's start with the Sears, a Chicago company. In the South, stores in places like Alabama and Mississippi used to be off-limits for Black customers. And when Black customers were finally allowed in, they often had to wait until white customers have finished shopping.

If there was only one of an item left, store staff would take it from a Black customer and give it to a white one. Black customers were sometimes charged more for the same item. Shopping under Jim Crow sucked.

And Black clerks did this to Black customers too. This wasn't just "I as a clerk am racist against you individually." This was individual employees operating in a racist system of shopping.

Then along comes Sears Roebuck Company from Chicago, with their mail order catalog! ♥️👍🏿

Yes, mail order is inconvenient. You can't see the items before they arrive. You have to pay postage, and shipping. There was no "UPS overnight" back then.

But the US postal service doesn't ship Jim Crow. Pay a little Black tax, avoid the daily indignities of shopping under Jim Crow.

Sears was better for Black customers in the south, and 20% of the south is Black. Good for business! 🤑

Black customers helped Sears grow, and helped mail order shopping become a big thing. It also destroyed the margins of the most racist stores in the South, by providing a viable alternative. It helped drive them out of business.

Some execs at Sears wanted to lean into their Black customer base, because they realized that half of their white customers had no problem with it, and that "Black folk + half of white folk" is a much bigger market than "No Black folk + the other half of white folk."

But racism is just too delicious, and "the other half of white folk" were over-represented in Sears executive leadership. 🤷🏿‍♂️

Let's talk about rideshare and Uber, and why I was the biggest Uber fan on planet Earth in the company's early days. Seriously. Uber folks may have been super pumped, but I was super duper pumpty dumped!

I had to travel to NYC for work, and took a cab from my hotel to midtown Manhattan. After work, I tried to take a cab back to my hotel, which was also in Manhattan.

I stood for almost 30 minutes, as every cab passed me and went to a white person.😮

I eventually paid a homeless white skater kid five bucks to hail a cab for me.

NYC cabs don't pick up Black riders at the end of the day. Because they know that most Black folk live in Brooklyn. A rider with a $5 fare might leave a $5 tip, but a rider with a $50 fare is unlikely to leave a $50 tip. So during rush hour, cabbies make more money doing lots of short Manhattan trips, than one long trip to Brooklyn.

Black cabbies avoid Black folk during rush hour too. Yes, there are straight up racist cabbies. But a lot of it is just this. People have known about this phenomenon since the 50s, and no one did anything significant about it. Because people are okay with the fact that yellow cabs just don't work as well for Black people in NYC. 🤷🏿‍♂️

I started using Uber, and my racist transportation problems disappeared entirely. Uber could have been double the price of yellow cabs and I would have still used it.

Again, statistically, it is guaranteed that I have taken a ride from an individually racist Uber driver! Doesn't matter. If they had a confederate flag, they kept it in the glove box. Rush Limbaugh was not on their radio when I got in.

Uber was better for Black passengers, and 25% of NYC is Black. 🤑

Instead of competing on improving service for Black riders, yellow cab folk tried to limit Uber. Instead of competing on improving service for Black in-person customers, Jim Crow era stores tried to limit mail order catalogs.

(At this point, someone is fighting the urge to derail this thread into how they don't like Uber, or classification of drivers as employees, or VC funded loss leaders, or medallion prices. I wish them strength!)

Let's talk about Best Buy vs Amazon, shoplifting, and loss prevention. The goal of loss prevention should not be to stop folk from stealing from the store. It should be to reduce risk to the business. Theft is one risk. Losing customers is another risk.

We're too deep into Black history month for me to explain that most of the people accused of and arrested for shoplifting are Black, but most of the people that shoplift are white. If that's still controversial, go back to Feb 1 and start over.

I will say that you should ask Black US dudes if they've ever been followed around by clerks in a store while white women shoplift, completely unbothered.🤡 🙋🏿‍♂️

I will also say that you should ask loss prevention experts if they know that cosmetics and razors are two of the most commonly shoplifted items. They'll say yes. Then ask them what color the razors that are most frequently stolen are. Then ask any man the exact brand and shade of his partner's foundation or eyeliner. They don't know. 🤷🏿‍♂️

I will explain that as a Black dude, going into an electronics store, paying over $1,000 for something, being accused of shoplifting it, and presenting my receipt while a cop stands next to me with his hand on his gun, is not good customer service.

I'll also explain that being followed around a store is not fun or cute. Being denied returns more than other customers, also not cute.

We know who shoplifts. It's not based on race or income. Go check on Winona Ryder.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4104590/

Prevalence and Correlates of Shoplifting in the United States: Results From the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC)

This study presented nationally representative data on the lifetime prevalence, correlates, and comorbidity of shoplifting among adults in the United States.Data were derived from a large national sample of the United States population. Face-to-face surveys ...

PubMed Central (PMC)

I'd rather go into the store, look at TVs and laptops, leave the store without buying anything, and then order it online. Saving $50 because the online retailer has it for cheaper, is an extra bonus.

I'd rather buy from a place that has a consistent, less racially biased return policy.

People urging customers to "buy local!" don't bother to say how they're making this local shopping experience better for Black customers.

Amazon and their companies like Zappos, have great return policies. 🤑

Consider the experience of a Black shopper as you read this:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-discrimination-racial-shopping-while-black-20220214-xuja2qx4dbgxheyot3ytgciacq-story.html

(Right now, someone is resisting the urge to say that they don't like Amazon, or talk about labor rights, and derail this thread away from the experience of Black shoppers in the US. Pray for them!).

Meirav Furth-Matzkin: Racial bias in retail stores is real

To this day, courts refuse to interpret these laws as prohibiting discrimination in retail spaces. But are retail stores really free from racial bias and discrimination?

Chicago Tribune

I've said all I ever need to say about crypto. If at this point you still believe these crypto bros, after seeing everything I said come to pass, I can't help you. 🤷🏿‍♂️

But the current banking and finance systems don't work for Black people.

Ryan Coogler is a millionaire that can direct Black Panther, but can't deposit his check without having the cops called on him. Black cops pulled guns on him and handcuffed him, and a Black bank teller called the cops on him.

https://youtu.be/0YDewGNL_F8

Bodycam Video Shows Police Detaining 'Black Panther' Director Ryan Coogler

YouTube

It's not just Coogler. It's widespread.
https://youtu.be/tyJRTJUVCrA

I've never been arrested at a bank, but I have been disbelieved, and denied access to my own money.

If you understand white US history, you'll understand why US Black folk were uniquely vulnerable to the seductive dream of something other than the traditional banking system.

"If I pay you in crypto, you can move your money without going into a bank!" hits differently for us. We know crypto is a scam, but we want to believe.

Black Doctor Sues Chase Bank For Alleged Discrimination

YouTube

Want to reduce crypto scams? Make US government insured finance work as well for Black folk as white folk.

Want more drivers to have salaries and benefits? Make cabs and public transportation work as well for Black folk as white folk.

Want more small, local retail? Make small, local retail work as well for Black folk as white folk.

If you understand white US history, you'll understand why reducing racism helps bring about the healthier economic balance we all seek, and ignoring it, hurts it.

Shout out in advance to everyone that will read this thread as me stanning megacorps, instead of me criticizing racism and understanding Black consumer choices and expectations of being treated fairly.
@mekkaokereke I’m reading ‘Allow me to Retort’ by Elie Mystal and his second chapter talks about RFRE and how Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party helped set up the current Uber conservatives so they could win cases based on religious freedom over basically anyone’s basic human rights. The Colorado Springs Masterpiece Cakeshop being the first case and Hobby Lobby up next. We’re headed in exactly the wrong direction - these small businesses will have more freedom to discriminate
@mekkaokereke Those folks need to work on their reading comprehension. 🤓 Love these real talks.

@mekkaokereke
The Bob Marley lyric that I find the most poignant :

"Half the story has never been told."

@mekkaokereke there’s also the poisonous and long-running systematic attempts to put South Asian and Black communities against each other, which manifests as the structural biases like Indian drivers too often being unwilling to serve Black passengers. (Though, notably, they are *less* prone to this behavior than white drivers.) And it traces back to citizenship and residency being contingent on buying into explicit anti-Blackness. All of which the Ubers of the world profit from.
@anildash @mekkaokereke And South Asian communities (for the people in the cheap seats, not either of you) are the latest group that we put through that. One cohort after another of immigrants has been assigned as functionally non-white in some respect, until they become vocally anti-Black. Too far south in Europe, too far northeast in Europe, too far east in Europe, and now South Asia...

@mekkaokereke
Thank you for another magisterial thread on white history. It's rare that I learn something new about American racism, and I hadn't heard the history of Sears.

I think you may have also incidentally given me the answer to a question I've inchoately puzzled at: how did Sears, an organization whose upper management in the last 4 decades didn't seem smart enough to pour water out of a boot with instructions printed on the heel, nevertheless manage to, once upon a time, create a vast business empire. Apparently accidentally: they stumbled across a way to leverage racism to get Black customers. They didn't mean to, they weren't demonstrating cleverness, they were just picking up a $100 bill they found lying on the sidewalk.

@siderea BTW I haven't finished it but the early chapters of the book "Catalogues and Counters: A History of Sears, Roebuck and Company" help explain how the early founders found and capitalized on opportunities effectively .... I seem to recall actual cleverness

@mekkaokereke

Man... you really "get" Mastodon on a fundamental level. 😀

@mekkaokereke 😂😂😂 You know they’re out there… 😂😂😂

@mekkaokereke I’ve been part of any number of conversations bemoaning “lack of adoption/slow adoption,” and (at best) inaccessibility of medical/health tracking/treatment systems among Black folk.

Hello? Cell phones? Texting? Early adoption, anyone?

A foundational study on significant blood #glucose improvement in type 2 #diabetes patients used communications networks already developed by the Black community. Too predictably, I’ve not seen the hoped-for attempts at replication and expansion.

@mekkaokereke your point about crypto generalizes to these other subjects with one caveat. Just as crypto takes advantage of banking racism to exploit this angle, so do Amazon and Uber - but at least they're delivering decent service. All the anti Amazon and Uber points are fine and true but it doesn't change the fact that they deliver something a lot of people can't get from the alternatives. Good thread w/ specifics

(maybe temu is shopping crypto? Seems like it's just "Amazon, but garbage")

@mekkaokereke Sorry to post on something so old, but what a great thread! Really opened my eyes to something I can't usually see, as a non-us white guy.
@mekkaokereke I can’t imagine just how much it must impact you to write these threads. You are amazing. I always learn something new!

@mekkaokereke I don't argue with any of this. But Uber is being sued for racial discrimination, has lost money from its inception, and pays shit anyway: https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/ubers-racially-biased-ratings-system-hurts-non-white-drivers-lawsuit-says/.

In 2020 Amazon's warehouse workers, underpaid and injured at a ferocious rate, were 31% Black. Less than 4% of its senior management and executive staff were Black. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/new-amazon-data-shows-black-latino-and-female-employees-are-underrepresented-in-best-paid-jobs/. In addition, much of what they sell comes from China, and is partly manufactured by slave labor.

The megacorps are racist, too.

Uber's 'racially biased' ratings system hurts nonwhite drivers, lawsuit says

"Throughout its history, Uber has made firing decisions based on a system that it knows is poisoned with racial discrimination," says attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan.

CNET

@ravenonthill You may have missed the thread posts where I said, "right now someone is resisting the urge..." I know that the urge is powerful!🙂

You're explaining how challenging it is for Black folk to get to senior leadership at Amazon, to one of the very few Black folk to ever make it to senior leadership at Amazon.🤷🏿‍♂️

The point of this thread is not "megacorps are all anti-racist bastions of labor rights!"

I'm very specifically highlighting experiences from a Black customer perspective.

@mekkaokereke sorry. I don’t see all of your posts. I also put at the top of my remark, “I don't argue with any of this.” I am pointing out that some Black people are protecting themselves from some racist organizations by doing business with other racist organizations, which also have some of the worst labor practices.

Where possible, it would be better not to do business with racist organizations.

Here’s an article on black credit unions: that’s at least something.
https://www.wpcu.coop/articles/a-brief-history-of-black-credit-unions

A Brief History of Black Credit Unions | Wright-Patt Credit Union

As we celebrate Black History Month, we remember the important role of black credit unions played in advancing economic equality and the credit union movement.

@mekkaokereke

I have long wondered why US banks have not moved away from checks. I think you have explained why they don't.

@ravenonthill

@mekkaokereke

One reason the U.S. lags the rest of the industrialized world in life expectancy and has higher infant mortality rates is its failure to capitalize on and care for its on human resources. That's what racism will do to a country. #hatredisweakness

@mekkaokereke

“If you understand white US history, you'll understand why reducing racism helps bring about the healthier economic balance we all seek, and ignoring it, hurts it.”

A lot of people need this tattooed backwards on their foreheads.

@mekkaokereke ahhhhhhh I want to boost this five million times
@mekkaokereke
Reading this on a city bus, during a 1.5 hour commute across town, it is too true. My city doesn't even have a dedicated source of funding for transit because "buses are for poor people." 🙄

@mekkaokereke February 11, 2025

The history of the government serving the people vs government of a few rich men at the expense of the people. This is the big secret Republicans want buried forever.

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/february-11-2025?r=9kpps&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

February 11, 2025

On February 12, 1809, Nancy Hanks Lincoln gave birth to her second child, a son: Abraham.

Letters from an American