Not to mention he was with his four year old at the time?
How many would-be graffiti artists take their small child to cop some spray paint?
Apparently not even the first time they’ve discriminated against BAME individuals given other peoples testimonials in the twitter comments.
Jesus
I hope they also refused to sell them to white teenagers
Asked for ID to buy age-restricted products.
Couldn’t produce ID.
End of.
But it needs to be portrayed as a discrimination, -phobic, culture-war thing,
else it won’t get any traction on the socials…
“if you have a protected character you just have a sense for these things.”
Really? Or is this one of those skills where people never actually get hard confirmation of they were right or not, so just assume they were correct and further reinforce their belief in their ability. Like people who “can always tell if someone is lying”.
I have no idea if the Hobby Craft employee was racist or not. They very well may have been, but I despise this kind of “you can just tell” reasoning.
Redbull is an age restricted item now. Do I lose my shit? No. I showed some Id. What is this this utter fucking idiocy.
>In an email later sent to Gray, Hobbycraft said they were continuing to investigate. “Your situation involved the purchase of age restricted product which requires age verification, meaning all colleagues are trained to ask for ID should they believe the customer is under the age of 25. As you were unable to share ID with our colleagues, they were unfortunately unable to authorise the sale.”
He’s a 32 year old man, double the legal minimum age to buy spray paint, which is 16.
Looking at his profile picture, he doesn’t look 25, let alone 15. He’s got male pattern balding!
I don’t believe Hobbycraft’s excuse for a moment.
As someone who worked at the shop I affectionately name Hobbyhell years ago in order to save up for my masters degree, they had a *lot* of senior staff who were both abusive and slightly racist behind the scenes to both customers and the lower levels of workers; and this was in an area of London which is quite diverse.
Yes, you are supposed to challenge 25 on spray paints and solvents, among other items. But if a man has a child with him, why would you assume he was a teen father specifically? Seems like a personal judgement by the staff member in this case that was way off.
If the article hadn’t told me he was black, i would not even have known.
Dude looks like a white guy who went on holiday.
Someone would need to be very very racist, to decide to discriminate against him lol.
Aerosols are potentially dangerous to your health hence the challenge 25, not because you might be a vandal.
> The victim who works as an equality, diversity and inclusion manager.
Ah yes.
Im bald, 40, with a grey beard. Homebase wouldnt sell me a crowbar with out my i.d.
No story here.
It would be really shitty if it turns out Hobbycraft asked the guy what he needed the paint for and he said in his own words “I’m using it to paint my name on the bridge”. Because that’s what always happens in these articles.
Fuck right off with this race baiting bullshit.
Shops really ought to have very straightforward policies for requiring ID for certain items REGARDLESS OF HOW OLD THE CUSTOMER LOOKS. It’s a way to protect the business and the employee by not expecting their staff to make any judgement of age. Because otherwise you end up with dumb stuff like this.
The fact that the guy was black is irrelevant, at least before gutter journalists got hold of the (non) story.
I didn’t even realize you could need ID for spray paint, I’ve been buying it from them since I was 19/20 and I’ve never been asked for ID.
Also
>Age-restricted products include knives, aerosol paints, Christmas crackers and helium, among others.
Why Christmas crackers? The others I can kind of understand but Christmas crackers?
What happened to this country that lets people think an individual colour has anything to do with hobbying, it’s the 21st century after all and the game most playing 40k at the time were sheltering from the Cold War by rolling dice, how did it fall so low and so quickly?
It is bad that this is happening but I am happy to have moved in a country where this is one of the examples of racism. I am white and come from a country where my ethnic group has a huge majority and moving to London I understood how racists/look down upon/ discriminate against we are towards whomever we can get our hands on.
Yes it is wrong, yes it has to stop, yes things need to improve but I am truly happy that these are our problems.
Why didn’t the guy go back with his ID and PROVE it was about race,because if they refused him when he had ID that would be proof to me.
Going back with your grandad, they aren’t going to challenge-25 him are they so of course he was served.
Same as if he goes to the pub, if they challenge 25 him, with no ID he wont get served. And if he comes back with his grandad and his grandad buys a pint, that’s life it’s not racism, bring your ID if you want to get served next time
All the people doubting if this is racist have evidently never been to Newport.
Even if he was going to graffiti something? What business is it of Sue behind the till at hobby craft. What sort of world do we live in ffs
I feel for the staff. As someone who has worked with challenge 25 policy for 16 years, it can be incredibly hard to judge the age of someone from a ten second glance. We’re asked to make a split second judgement and sometimes we get wrong. The thing is though, as soon as you ask for ID you cannot back out. I have numerous times asked for ID of customers well into their thirties. Age is a really tricky thing to judge these days. I’ve also had some upsetting interactions with customers where the sale hasn’t gone their way. The abuse is real and happens daily because we’re trying to do the right thing and also protect our livelihoods.
Fyi, from my experience, I would’ve also refused the white man who bought it for him had I known he was purchasing for him. It’s called a proxy sale and also illegal. But we have to be sure that’s what’s happening.
What no one in these comments seems to be bothered about is what the fuck business is it of Hobbycraft what he wanted to use it for!? If he wanted to go tagging then that isn’t their problem, and certainly isn’t their place to control it. That’s for the actual police to deal with. Painting a mural isn’t illegal so their bullshit excuse just doesn’t wash
Challenge 25. Nothing to do with race.
Still, he’ll probably do quite well out of this. As a diversity officer this is worth like 500 grievance points. Went viral and got a big write up in The Guardian.
Massive leg up if he wants to run for any public office, write articles, books, give seminars. Well played sir.
For the record I think racial discrimination is a serious issue which is why these frivolous claims of racism are so damaging.
Black man? Where?
>Louis Gray, who works for Sport Wales as equality, diversity and inclusion manager
Yeah, this is making sense now. Person literally paid to see racism everywhere sees racism.
They didn’t think he was going to do graffiti, those are his words. The item had a 25 year age restriction, He didn’t carry ID. That is it.
This doesn’t sound like a racist incident to me. Just stupidity with the age/id stuff.
This is a non-issue. Challenge 25 is a perfectly okay reason. The exact same situation could have played out if it was alcohol. The article says
>Gray said the way the manager and shop assistant looked him up and down before refusing to serve him made him believe he was being racially profiled
I mean yeah, maybe he was racially profiled but we don’t know that. When people get ID for anything they get looked up and down. Happens to me when I’m buying alcohol and I’m a white guy who is 40.
Yes of course a diversity and inclusion officer is going to see and feel racism everywhere. It’s mandated by his job title. If he doesn’t stir the simmering pot of our racially suspicious age then he is out on the street.
All he experienced was an infuriating bit of British jobs-worthery.
We’ve all been there.
TBF you can have baldness before 25. I lost most of my hair by that age. Also to be fair, anyone thinking this block is under 25 needs to get their eyes checked. He’s clearly old enough to buy the paint. Racist? Who knows. Jobsworths being bellends? Definitely.
Man this is absolutely unbelievable and I can’t believe it, that you have tone 25 to buy Christmas crackers.
Just to add to this… in my shop with challenge 25 you couldn’t sell alcohol if the adult was with a child incase they were buying it for the child
As soon as I read “Sport Wales as equality, diversity and inclusion manager” I switched off.
This is the sort of nutter that will see racism everywhere and in everything.
Kinda weird he returned with a significantly older white relative instead of with his ID. He made a point of saying he had to drive to the shop so it’s not unreasonable to think he has a driving license.
Seems like he wanted to “prove” it was a race thing not an ID thing.
‘Kinell, if he’s supposed to look under 25 he’s had a hard paper round. Absolutely disgraceful.
I suppose the question is if he had I.D on him then what would have happened then? These types are stories are always a subjective “he said, she said” type situation. Sometimes your suspicions are correct sometimes “your truth” might not be everybody’s truth.
33 comments
Not to mention he was with his four year old at the time?
How many would-be graffiti artists take their small child to cop some spray paint?
Apparently not even the first time they’ve discriminated against BAME individuals given other peoples testimonials in the twitter comments.
Jesus
I hope they also refused to sell them to white teenagers
Asked for ID to buy age-restricted products.
Couldn’t produce ID.
End of.
But it needs to be portrayed as a discrimination, -phobic, culture-war thing,
else it won’t get any traction on the socials…
“if you have a protected character you just have a sense for these things.”
Really? Or is this one of those skills where people never actually get hard confirmation of they were right or not, so just assume they were correct and further reinforce their belief in their ability. Like people who “can always tell if someone is lying”.
I have no idea if the Hobby Craft employee was racist or not. They very well may have been, but I despise this kind of “you can just tell” reasoning.
Redbull is an age restricted item now. Do I lose my shit? No. I showed some Id. What is this this utter fucking idiocy.
>In an email later sent to Gray, Hobbycraft said they were continuing to investigate. “Your situation involved the purchase of age restricted product which requires age verification, meaning all colleagues are trained to ask for ID should they believe the customer is under the age of 25. As you were unable to share ID with our colleagues, they were unfortunately unable to authorise the sale.”
He’s a 32 year old man, double the legal minimum age to buy spray paint, which is 16.
Looking at his profile picture, he doesn’t look 25, let alone 15. He’s got male pattern balding!
I don’t believe Hobbycraft’s excuse for a moment.
As someone who worked at the shop I affectionately name Hobbyhell years ago in order to save up for my masters degree, they had a *lot* of senior staff who were both abusive and slightly racist behind the scenes to both customers and the lower levels of workers; and this was in an area of London which is quite diverse.
Yes, you are supposed to challenge 25 on spray paints and solvents, among other items. But if a man has a child with him, why would you assume he was a teen father specifically? Seems like a personal judgement by the staff member in this case that was way off.
If the article hadn’t told me he was black, i would not even have known.
Dude looks like a white guy who went on holiday.
Someone would need to be very very racist, to decide to discriminate against him lol.
Aerosols are potentially dangerous to your health hence the challenge 25, not because you might be a vandal.
> The victim who works as an equality, diversity and inclusion manager.
Ah yes.
Im bald, 40, with a grey beard. Homebase wouldnt sell me a crowbar with out my i.d.
No story here.
It would be really shitty if it turns out Hobbycraft asked the guy what he needed the paint for and he said in his own words “I’m using it to paint my name on the bridge”. Because that’s what always happens in these articles.
Fuck right off with this race baiting bullshit.
Shops really ought to have very straightforward policies for requiring ID for certain items REGARDLESS OF HOW OLD THE CUSTOMER LOOKS. It’s a way to protect the business and the employee by not expecting their staff to make any judgement of age. Because otherwise you end up with dumb stuff like this.
The fact that the guy was black is irrelevant, at least before gutter journalists got hold of the (non) story.
I didn’t even realize you could need ID for spray paint, I’ve been buying it from them since I was 19/20 and I’ve never been asked for ID.
Also
>Age-restricted products include knives, aerosol paints, Christmas crackers and helium, among others.
Why Christmas crackers? The others I can kind of understand but Christmas crackers?
What happened to this country that lets people think an individual colour has anything to do with hobbying, it’s the 21st century after all and the game most playing 40k at the time were sheltering from the Cold War by rolling dice, how did it fall so low and so quickly?
It is bad that this is happening but I am happy to have moved in a country where this is one of the examples of racism. I am white and come from a country where my ethnic group has a huge majority and moving to London I understood how racists/look down upon/ discriminate against we are towards whomever we can get our hands on.
Yes it is wrong, yes it has to stop, yes things need to improve but I am truly happy that these are our problems.
Why didn’t the guy go back with his ID and PROVE it was about race,because if they refused him when he had ID that would be proof to me.
Going back with your grandad, they aren’t going to challenge-25 him are they so of course he was served.
Same as if he goes to the pub, if they challenge 25 him, with no ID he wont get served. And if he comes back with his grandad and his grandad buys a pint, that’s life it’s not racism, bring your ID if you want to get served next time
All the people doubting if this is racist have evidently never been to Newport.
Even if he was going to graffiti something? What business is it of Sue behind the till at hobby craft. What sort of world do we live in ffs
I feel for the staff. As someone who has worked with challenge 25 policy for 16 years, it can be incredibly hard to judge the age of someone from a ten second glance. We’re asked to make a split second judgement and sometimes we get wrong. The thing is though, as soon as you ask for ID you cannot back out. I have numerous times asked for ID of customers well into their thirties. Age is a really tricky thing to judge these days. I’ve also had some upsetting interactions with customers where the sale hasn’t gone their way. The abuse is real and happens daily because we’re trying to do the right thing and also protect our livelihoods.
Fyi, from my experience, I would’ve also refused the white man who bought it for him had I known he was purchasing for him. It’s called a proxy sale and also illegal. But we have to be sure that’s what’s happening.
What no one in these comments seems to be bothered about is what the fuck business is it of Hobbycraft what he wanted to use it for!? If he wanted to go tagging then that isn’t their problem, and certainly isn’t their place to control it. That’s for the actual police to deal with. Painting a mural isn’t illegal so their bullshit excuse just doesn’t wash
Challenge 25. Nothing to do with race.
Still, he’ll probably do quite well out of this. As a diversity officer this is worth like 500 grievance points. Went viral and got a big write up in The Guardian.
Massive leg up if he wants to run for any public office, write articles, books, give seminars. Well played sir.
For the record I think racial discrimination is a serious issue which is why these frivolous claims of racism are so damaging.
Black man? Where?
>Louis Gray, who works for Sport Wales as equality, diversity and inclusion manager
Yeah, this is making sense now. Person literally paid to see racism everywhere sees racism.
They didn’t think he was going to do graffiti, those are his words. The item had a 25 year age restriction, He didn’t carry ID. That is it.
This doesn’t sound like a racist incident to me. Just stupidity with the age/id stuff.
This is a non-issue. Challenge 25 is a perfectly okay reason. The exact same situation could have played out if it was alcohol. The article says
>Gray said the way the manager and shop assistant looked him up and down before refusing to serve him made him believe he was being racially profiled
I mean yeah, maybe he was racially profiled but we don’t know that. When people get ID for anything they get looked up and down. Happens to me when I’m buying alcohol and I’m a white guy who is 40.
Yes of course a diversity and inclusion officer is going to see and feel racism everywhere. It’s mandated by his job title. If he doesn’t stir the simmering pot of our racially suspicious age then he is out on the street.
All he experienced was an infuriating bit of British jobs-worthery.
We’ve all been there.
TBF you can have baldness before 25. I lost most of my hair by that age. Also to be fair, anyone thinking this block is under 25 needs to get their eyes checked. He’s clearly old enough to buy the paint. Racist? Who knows. Jobsworths being bellends? Definitely.
Man this is absolutely unbelievable and I can’t believe it, that you have tone 25 to buy Christmas crackers.
Just to add to this… in my shop with challenge 25 you couldn’t sell alcohol if the adult was with a child incase they were buying it for the child
As soon as I read “Sport Wales as equality, diversity and inclusion manager” I switched off.
This is the sort of nutter that will see racism everywhere and in everything.
Kinda weird he returned with a significantly older white relative instead of with his ID. He made a point of saying he had to drive to the shop so it’s not unreasonable to think he has a driving license.
Seems like he wanted to “prove” it was a race thing not an ID thing.
‘Kinell, if he’s supposed to look under 25 he’s had a hard paper round. Absolutely disgraceful.
I suppose the question is if he had I.D on him then what would have happened then? These types are stories are always a subjective “he said, she said” type situation. Sometimes your suspicions are correct sometimes “your truth” might not be everybody’s truth.