The real question should be, what was he dressed like? Because that makes all the difference in the world.
If he was dressed like this, then yes I would say it was racist:
But if he was dressed like this:
Then he has nobody to blame but himself.
Black people and Black athletes need to understand that when you dress up hoodish and thuggish like the above image, corporate America and suburbia USA is going to look at you like you just came straight out of prison. Especially if they have tattoos, earrings and everything else. It looks excessive. These young buck athletes think they can do what they do because they're in the NBA and "made it." No, you have to dress in a professional manner, because guess what? You are a professional.
As a Black man myself, who is educated, who has a command of the English language, and who understands the opportunities in this world for us, and we are in a situation where we complain about this as a community about how there is a lack of absence of opportunities accorded to us in comparison to other groups that exist in this country. But what do we do to facilitate that? If the imagery you provide is not something that ingratiates itself with a potential employer or even in a suburb in the Midwestern united states, where does that lead you? Possibly in jail. As a Black man, I have the obligation to react to that and to make sure that I present myself in a orderly fashion that, dare I say, is receptive to corporate America because I understand the importance of imagery. If Mr. John Henson from the Milwaukee Buck went to that store dressed like he was in the second picture, then he has no one to blame but himself because he represents the Milwaukee Bucks organization and the whole franchise.
I work for an accounting firm, and as a Black man, if I showed up to work with tattoos in my neck, a baseball cap on turned backwards, a warm up suit, gold teeth on my mouth, dreads coming down my hair, and come into the company and say "well I'm out here representing the firm" Really? I would be fired faster than you can say costume jewelry.
Black folks need to understand, that whether we like it or not, prejudism exists and the way we carry ourselves matters to combat those prejudices. Are we going to sit here and literally act like we Black folks don't have any prejudices about other groups? Like we don't feel a certain way about certain people or certain people's appearances? And how it makes us raise our antennas? If a Black man goes to places like Mississippi, Idaho or Montana, surrounded by mostly white people from the countryside, will they be comfortable? Black people too would feel uncomfortable in certain geographic locations in our nation. If Black people go to places in the southwest where its indistinguishably Mexican, would Blacks feel uncomfortable? Damn right they would. Whites feel that same un-comfort just like Blacks would feel uncomfortable in certain locations across our great nation. This is just a reality. As a result of this, you don't cause harm to anybody or any pain, but does it raise your antennas and make you a little bit suspicious? Of course it does.
I look at our unemployment rate consistently being doubled that of folks in white America. I do understand that to some degree there's a level of racism that we all have to overcome, and I get all of that, BUT that doesn't mean every single issue is race related. Samseau could very well be right, maybe the owner had Black people steal from them, and because of this they are a little bit suspicious of Black people coming in and buying things from their store. That's where presentation comes in. It really is about how you present yourself. If you're walking around with your pants hanging below your behind and the first words that come out of your mouth are "nah I'm saying, nah I mean," then don't expect to be treated with any form of respectability by anyone. If you don't have the command of the English language, and still want a job and a career, and to be respected, well I'm sorry to say but you're not going to go anywhere. You can't feed into the stereotype if you want to make it in life, it aint going to happen.
Most of the time, we Blacks our are own worst enemy. Presentation matters, how you look matters, how you carry yourself matters. And for anybody that wants to act like it doesn't they're full of shit and they know it. When people see you dressed up in gold chains, hoodish and talking ebonics with a hoodie on, they have that unalienable right to be fearful of you and as a result of that they can decide to walk in a different direction to get away from you as much as possible. They're not bothering you, but they're fearful that you're going to bother them based on your presentation and appearance. Black folks want to act like it doesn't matter, but it does matter. It doesn't matter whether you're Black, Hispanic, or White, or whatever the case may be, but we have segments of our society that are uncomfortable with that, and this makes you look at you in a different way. This is a serious problem in minority communities and people want to act like its not. How you look matters. That may not be something Black America is comfortable with, but it happens to be 100% true.
I don't know the backstory of Mr. Henson, but if he was dressing hoodish, then I have no sympathy.
