I Am Not a Thief: Retelling My Story to Understand a Racist Encounter

Abstract

In the United States, acts of prejudice occur in many situations and spaces. Scholars and researchers hypothesize that these acts are often due to the racism that permeates our country. When seemingly racist acts occur, they are sometimes unreported, misunderstood or simply not addressed. As a Black woman falsely accused of theft, I endured assumptions made about me, and I made assumptions about my accuser. We are often left to speculate as to what fuels acts of racism, whether in the form of microaggressions or overt acts. As we try to assign reasons for others’ behaviors, we must also inspect the conditioning of our own thinking. In this study, I utilize both Critical Race Theory and Attribution theory while employing an autoethnographical approach to dissect an unexpected racial encounter. Racism is a palpable subject, and in re-telling the event, I uncover assumptions, locate structured biases and find an empowering voice that allows my perceived racist encounter to be addressed.