TOW #13

Roxane Gay, American Author and writer for the New York Times, shared her story of racial profiling in a personal essay called, "My Receipt Was Not Good Enough." Gay wrote about a specific encounter with racial profiling in a Best Buy. Her recently purchased item still had the security tag on it, and set off the alarm. She showed her receipt to the employee standing by the door but he was hesitant to except it. Instead, he waited for the manager who brought over the person who checked her out, only for the cashier to say Gay did indeed buy the video game. All the while, the employee by the door let an old couple who set off the alarm through with Gay watching the whole time. Infuriated, Gay wrote My Receipt Was Not Good Enough, in order to express how racial profiling still exists and is a major issue, by including repetition and allusions. When describing the encounter, Roxanne Gay uses repetition to emphasize the neglect she was experiencing because of her race. She wrote, " I asked him what the problem was and he ignored me. I asked to speak to a manager and he ignored me" (para 4). By repeating the phrase "he ignored me," Gay is able to make it clear to readers that she was not being treated fairly. Not only did the employee let another couple with the same issue leave, he was not even acknowledging Roxanne's presence. As an employee it is his job to respect and communicate properly with a customer. The repetition is showing that the one employee was not the only one to ignore her. The repetition helps Gay express that this was in part to racial profiling because the employees that were ignoring her were helping non-blacks in the store. Along with this Gay includes allusions to show that racial issues are prevalent far beyond her. She writes, "I was mindful of Trayvon Martin and Renisha McBride and Eric Garner who lost their lives to racial profiling" (para 7). By introducing major names that the public knows were killed because of racism, Gay appeals to pathos. By alluding to the deaths of these three people, Gay evokes sadness and sympathy within her readers. By doing so, she is able to express how big of an issue racial profiling is. By including the three big names, it also shows that the racial barrier extends way farther than the walls of the best buy. Her allusions ties together her own story with the greater issue, which helps her express how prevalent racial profiling still is today. Her essay was not only eye-opening but very powerful and expressed an issue that needs to be stopped.  She effectively takes the idea of racial profiling and narrows it down to a spectrum that any reader could understand. Gay's courage of sharing her own story is helping the battle for equality stay afloat, and help erase stigmas that are still apparent, even if we like to think they are not.