Fortunately, they were recorded. The video shows an appalling lack of basic customer service management skills, combined with some good ‘ol bigotry. A howl of genuine public anger was raised on Facebook and is still rising. More than 150,000 people have now seen the video, and many are looking for somewhere to complain to Apple and make their displeasure known.
The six Year 10 kids aren’t exactly what you’d call hoodies. They’re schoolkids. You’d have to be pretty far gone in your total ignorance to see them as some sort of threat. Not very surprisingly, they’re getting a lot of support from those who’ve experienced racism themselves.
To clarify — any kind of discrimination on the basis of ethnic origin is illegal in Australia. This could be legally actionable. If so, it’d be with good reason. The Facebook video isn’t exactly appealing viewing. They ask “Why would we steal something?” and are told, “End of discussion, I need you to leave our store.”
According to Mashable, Apple has apologized to the kids and is reviewing security footage, and also considering its options regarding the staff’s actions. Apple says it has a strong commitment to “diversity.”
Racism in Australia is the usual European redneck type, and includes a lot of political opportunists railing against Muslims, migrants, etc. It’s pig-ignorant, usually pretty ugly, and offensive to everyone else, including whites who don’t eat with their nostrils and drag their eyebrows along the ground when they walk. It’s also often targeted.
Apple apparently has a problem with basic compliance here. If those guys were any kind of shoplifting threat, that’s not how you deal with it. These days, cameras are everywhere, and so is security. You definitely don’t need to confront and humiliate people in public.
You don’t accuse people of “intending” to steal with no factual basis, either. There’s no suggestion from anyone that those kids were actually involved in any kind of theft, intended or otherwise.
This needs to be fixed, and Apple Melbourne staff should be fully brought up to speed with the law and their obligations to customers to respect their rights. It shouldn’t need doing.
