Dear Bass Pro Shop,
I got my pay check today and I went to the bank and opened up a checking account. Then I put the money in the bank and had to pay a minimum deposit, and I had about $130 left over. I did not know what to spend it on. Not fifteen minutes later my friend texts me and asked if I wanted to join him on a trip to Kansas City to go shopping at Bass Pro Shop. Knowing I was in a dire need of a new fishing pole and wanting to see the brand new addition to the store the Duck Dynasty section, which is now one of my new favorite shows to watch on television. I could not pass up on the chance to go.
So then we began our two hour car ride to the store. Finally after a long car ride, we had arrived. We parked the car and went inside. Walking into the store we went past the pillar thing that counts how many people are in store. There was an older white gentleman who greeted us as we walked by the revolving things. Saying hello and walking past, he grabs at a radio at his waist and murmurs something into it. My friends and I walked farther in the store and people came up to ask us if we needed help finding anything and we said no were just here looking around. Then, we go to the section where the fishing tackle is and we go down one of the aisles and another guy messed with his radio that he had on his hip. He came over and asked me if I needed help finding anything and then walked farther along and grabbed a lure off the shelf. We walked farther along and kept looking around for a good bass lure.
When I was off alone, they sent “secret” shoppers to go follow me and wherever I went they went. They would make fake conversation to each other as I passed never talking their eyes off me. Exploring more into the store, I started to realize it had begun to grow packed. I keep walking and entered a new section of the store. Up ahead I see a man and his two young girls who were no more than ten years old. I keep walking passing the man with the two kids. I looked at the man I could see a radio on his hip. It goes off someone and on the other line says something like “you got that nigger in your view.” He picks up and answers “yeah I got him right in my section. Time to go back to work”, he says out loud. Men further down the aisles chuckled and almost out of nowhere, the people who stood still around me started to move almost at once. Then an uneasy feeling started to creep over me. I felt unsafe. I then began walking faster now to the elevator I pressed the button and stood and waited. I then see a nice middle aged white couple make their way over to the elevator. They stopped and waited right next to me. When the doors opened they walked in and so did I. They started following me around. They would radio to each other and laugh and make other rude racial comments at each other as they kept following me.
I grabbed some other stuff off the shelf - spinners and catfish hooks. The secret shoppers still kept following me and they got in the elevator with us and were making racial comments to each other. We go to the checkout line and I go up to the guy to go buy my stuff and I reach into my pocket and pull out my wallet. He scans everything and I handed him a twenty dollar bill and everything totaled up to be about nine or so dollars. He put them in a bag. When I got my stuff, I said to the clerk it’s pretty messed up how your employees and your company treat the people who give you money. I then said, “I don’t think I will be coming back here anytime soon”. The clerk replied “unfortunately I know what you are talking about… I know it’s messed up and I feel bad.” I replied I am an American citizen, this is rude. I then began to leave and stopping me he asked “Sir, do you want your change?” I then turned around and said, “No, you keep it… maybe it will help buy a better world to live in.” I then proceeded to leave the store with my friends who paid for their items and joined me. I then had to take a two hour drive back to Emporia to my all white family who had adopted me at the age of thirteen. My dad asked me how my day was I replied it was good. We had just had a lengthy discussion about Jackie Robinson Day on Monday. Wondering how much things have changed??