Grocery stores that have remained open during the global Covid-19 pandemic say they’re completely swamped, and that leaves little time to racially profile Indigenous shoppers.
“Our ability to pretend to be straightening items on shelves within sightline of Indigenous shoppers has been really compromised,” said Ernest Beobachter, manager of a downtown Winnipeg grocery store.
“Plus, how can we even tell who’s Indigenous when everyone is wearing masks now?”
Retail associations in Alberta, Saskatchewa, Manitoba, and parts of Ontario said they’re developing a way in which they can meet up with Indigenous shoppers on Zoom and racially profile them remotely.
