I wonder, and roll with me here, if it was because they were unaccompanied teens and not because they were black. I know a lot of stores with signs that say "no more than two unaccompanied children in the store at one time". Kids steal. Do you think we are only hearing about it because all of them were black? Honest question.
It's an Apple Store, teens go into them all the time unaccompanied. Groups of them. Yes, I do think it was because they are black. I don't know how many people were in the store or how many kids, or their ethnicities, but if you ask young black kids to leave, because the employees were worried that they were going to steal something, and they haven't. Then there is a problem. Now if the kids were making moves like they were going to do something, or they or a person did steal, or an employee recognized someone who has stolen, I could see some type of reasoning. But, this was a "worried they WERE going to steal", future tense. They were acting like they were predicting the future, which they didn't know.
Plus the fact that they had backpacks on... that doesn't help their cause at all.
If I owned a store, and two teenagers (regardless of race), came into my store with backpacks on, I'd be suspicious as well.
Must be my white privilege though...
Apple products are tethered, last time I went into a store. Plus, the kids just got off of school. In many Apple Stores you will see teenagers with backpacks.
That's like grounding your child because you were worried that they were going to disobey you or that they were going to fail the test the next day.
