Prometheus 6   

Lawsuits draw attention to racial profiling of consumers
06/08/2003 05:45 PM EDT

(AP) - Recent lawsuits against Macy's, Dillard's and J.C. Penney are attracting new attention to racial profiling of consumers, something minority shoppers say has long been an unfortunate fact of life.

While the retail industry says profiling cases are isolated and the result of overly aggressive employees rather than company policies, minority customers complain they've been viewed suspiciously, sometimes refused service and falsely accused of shoplifting.

Consumers may have accepted such treatment as the norm in years past, said Jerome D. Williams, director of the Center for Marketplace Diversity at Howard University. But, increasingly, "people are tired of it," he said. "People recognize they have some legal rights now."

"If somebody is racially profiling, it's an isolated incident," said Daniel Butler, the National Retail Federation's retail operations vice president. "It's the result of an associate acting independently on their own. It's not the result of a company's training or people directing them to do it.