Cruised or Profiled?

Check this out.

Last night I went to AMC located inside a local surburban mall to meet Sally to catch Stomp The Yard. The movie personally wouldn't be my first choice. But Sally wanted to see it for the eye candy factor. So that's what we agreed to see. The movie was cute and I admit I was pleasantly surprised seeing the lovely Valarie Pettiford in a decent role. It was cool seeing her get work since she's underutilized by Hollywood. I also saw this hottie Laz Alonzo playing a frat guy. Even the thuggish main character who I'm normally not attracted to won me over when he went shirtless. It was cute. Contrived but cute.

But what happened before the movie is the reason for this entry.

Sally and I planned to meet there at 6:30 PM after work. She was running late because she went to work out and wouldn't get there until 7:15. So that gave me a full 45 minutes to kill. After purchasing my movie ticket, I went to Macy's to do some window shopping. I didn't see anything interesting except for some socks. I went to pay for them and was served by this jolly gay white man who was fakingly grinning. I wanted to tell him that I wasn't that pressed for a smile so don't waste his energy. But I didn't.

So I left Macy's and was walking around the mall. I needed to find a restroom and didn't want to go inside the theatre until Sally got there. I walked around looking for a restroom and as I'm walking, I see a white guy dressed like mall security walking down some nearby stairs. I walked past the stairs as he was making his way down, continuing my journey to the restroom. I go inside the restroom and during mid-piss (sorry...*LOL*), I noticed that he's walking in the restroom as well.

I didn't think much of him until I started washing my hands. He went over to a sink further away from me and divided by a wall. I purposely slowed down a bit when drying my hands to see if he would eventually walk away. He didn't. I sort of shook my head in disgust and walked out of the bathroom. I purposely stood in front of a mall directory display for five minutes waiting to see if he'd walk by. He didn't. I briefly turned around and saw him standing a yard or so away from me pretending to be looking elsewhere.

I started walking and saw from the back of my eye that he started walking too. I immediately dug for my cell phone and dialed Sally. I parked my ass on a plush chair between a couple of stores and bitched about my situation. I immediately was under the assumption that mall security was targeting me because I was shopping while black.

While chatting with Sally, I turned my head and as if to confirm my suspicions, I saw him walking not far from me. He then crossed over and strategically stood several feet in front of me, again pretending to look everywhere else but at me. I was livid but at the same time nonconfrontational. I sat there for another ten minutes before he eventually walked away.

What was that all about? Was I being followed because I was black? There weren't any other black folks within my vicinity so it made me wonder. Plus I've had past experiences where it was made obvious that I was being watched.

I went to the mall's website last night after getting back from my movie and was all set to email a complaint to the main site. Unfortunately the stupid site had a form set up so they didn't show their actual email address. I spoke to Rock about it and he thought I should wait until morning to send it in case I thought of anything else.

I spoke to Eugene this morning and based on the information I gave him, he concluded that I was being cruised by the guy. He said that since I first saw the guy half way across the mall coming the opposite direction of Macy's that it wasn't Macy's related. I didn't think it was either. At least I didn't notice anyone following me outside of Macy's. Eugene then said that the reason he followed me into the bathroom was to see if I would initiate conversation with him. The guy he said wouldn't risk his job going after me without any proof of wrongdoing. He then said that I was sending the guy mixed signals. When I gave him a semi-dirty look, he thought I wasn't interested. But then when I stopped by the directory sign and didn't move for five minutes, he wondered if I was interested. But he would have more to lose by risking it so he just followed hoping I would make a move towards him. Then when I sat down he thought I might be interested again until I talked on the cell phone. Then he just gave up.

So what do you guys think? Was I being cruised or profiled?