As Black Buying Power Grows, Racial Profiling By Retailers Remains Persistent Problem

Lorenzo Boyd was in the market for a new car and wanted to buy a luxury SUV. He went to a Lexus dealership and walked through the lot, expecting the unoccupied salesperson to run over. But that didn’t happen. After asking for help, the salesperson was slow to approach Lorenzo and when he did, he steered him to a cheaper model. “I remember the guy told me, ’Are you sure you want this one? This one’s a little pricey,” Boyd recalled. Boyd, a 50-year-old criminal justice professor and vice president for diversity and inclusion at the University of New Haven, said that scenario is one that has played out many times — not only for him, but for many Black Americans when they go to the coffee shop, make a trip to the mall or browse the aisles of a grocery store. Read more at CNBC.