It was merely a prank, one in poor taste like the dropping of cotton balls or engaging in a Compton Cookout, but a prank nonetheless.
But the audacity of hopelessness displayed by the villain who dared to utter “Attention: all Black people please leave the store,” at a Walmart in New Jersey has become national news, for a post-racial world is but a pipe-dream now:
Victoria Arter was stunned by the loudspeaker announcement.
“Attention, Wal-Mart shoppers,” she recalled hearing the calm male voice begin. “Will all the black people please leave the store. Thank you.”
Her shock turned to anger, Arter said, when more than five awkward and frightening minutes elapsed before management at the Wal-Mart in Turnersville came on the public address system.
“We waited and waited. Some people just left their carts in disgust and said they couldn’t believe it,” said Arter, an African American woman who was shopping at the store on Route 42 when the announcement was made shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is cooperating with the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office and Washington Township police, which are investigating the event as a possible racial-intimidation crime. More than 10 African Americans have signed a complaint with police.
“We’re just as appalled by this as anyone,” said Ashley Hardie, a spokeswoman for the discount-store chain, “and anyone who did this was wrong.”
Law enforcement is examining surveillance tapes inside the store. But the P.A. system can be accessed from 25 telephones in the building, and not all are within camera range, said Bernie Weisenfeld, spokesman for the prosecutor.