I am surprised that the loud voices who often lament the metal detectors and police in Philadelphia schools as an introduction to prison culture, are the same voices that have seemingly muted themselves in a current legislative debate. The debate on whether installed floor-to-ceiling bulletproof safety glass at stop-and-go shops – which separate customers, some who are children, and proprietors – are equally undignified and unnecessary.
Glass barriers, existing for safety purposes, aren’t new to stores in urban neighborhoods, whether they be bodegas or a stop-and-go, which sells beer and cigarettes alongside snacks that are marketed to children. In fact, the bulletproof glass has become germane to a type of purchasing experience reserved almost exclusively for poor black and brown customers. Depending on the location, the glass may be decorated with customer-submitted content that shows everything from official prom and graduation photos, to obituaries.
The impenetrable glass which divides mostly black and brown customers and often Hispanic or Asian storeowners has been normalized, despite it being abnormal, in the sense that people tend to do business with those they like and trust. In other words, the glass sends the message that not only isn’t there like for, or trust of, the customer, but there is, in its place, fear.
Whether the fear is perceived or actualized isn’t the main point. What matters more is why shopkeepers continue to operate in a hostile work environment, and what, if anything, are they doing to mitigate it?
The aforementioned question isn’t meant to blame the perceived victims for their circumstances but rather to iterate a social responsibility that small businesses should employ to improve the neighborhoods in which they exist.
A reality gone undiscussed since a Philadelphia City Councilmember sought legislative action to remove glass barriers is how little corner stores giveback to the community, and how their own lack of shop-care – allowing drug dealers to loiter in and around the business, selling loose cigarettes and single shots of liquor and an unwillingness to clean away inflammatory graffiti from their interior – contributes to the undesirable rowdy culture they claim to need protection from.
A South Philadelphia ‘Stop-and-Go’ advertises liquor shots. Photo Credit: C. Norris – ©2017
Again, my argument isn’t meant to undermine the valid concerns of safety that shopkeepers have. Instead, I aim to argue how the presence of bulletproof glass in corner stores promotes the dehumanization and distrust of the poor, while centering the privilege of its erector. These shopkeepers understand the disadvantaged nature of the communities where they work. And yet, their response to disadvantaged communities is to further isolate rather than involve themselves.
Indeed, it’s a privilege to run a store in a food desert, where the violence there is partly an outcome of circumstances, and shield only yourself from potential danger while doing nothing to alter circumstances that produce trouble. And the fact that people continue to buy at these stores, despite the barriers, isn’t merely a result of satisfaction with it but rather convenience due to a lack of options presented.
With all that said, it’s probably not the role of government to dictate how businesses secure themselves. This here is a matter of choice, and not just for the shopkeepers. But (black and brown) customers also must choose: either buy with dignity or under the presumption of suspicious.
Thanks for reading! Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® and I’m Drumming for Justice!™
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