There are so so so many ways to ask people to empty their pockets besides exploiting the Black man. But alas, a Walmart in Providence, R.I., thought it was clever to put a Black employee in a makeshift jail asking customers to contribute to his “bail,” according to The Providence Journal.
I’m sure this incident would have been kept local until Angela Ankoma, leader of the Rhode Island Foundation’s Equity Leadership Initiative, posted a picture of this nonsense to Twitter.
The cage that typically houses tons of bouncy balls was emptied to place a Black employee inside. The sign on the outside read, “I’m in jail!! I need bail!! Help me raise $50 to get out!!” According to the other signs posted on the bars of the cage, the cause was to raise money for Hasboro Children’s Miracle Network. Customer Angela Boateng complained to an employee about the display and told The Journal she planned to write corporate about it.
However, they already seemed to be aware of the incident.
From The Providence Journal:
“Walmart Corporation spokesman Joe Pennington said the location was participating in an annual Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals fundraiser during which the company encourages ‘store associates to creatively engage with one another and customers to raise money.’
“The ‘jail’ fundraiser goes against company policy and should never be used,” Pennington said. “We are reinforcing this with our stores in the area, and this display has been removed from our Providence location.”
Once the picture went viral, everyone from Black Lives Matter RI to civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump were ticked off about it.
“Putting a Black employee in a cage should NOT have been the solution to raise funds. Why did no one at Walmart realize this before this offensive and humiliating event happened?” Crump tweeted.
The organization released a statement demanding accountability for whoever participated in the offensive display and called for the store to implement diversity training programs for the employees, per the report.
Who knows? This may have been an ignorant jab at Black people or an idea by a couple of young employees who didn’t think anything of it. Either way, putting a Black guy in fake jail on the heels of Juneteenth was just terrible timing.