A black man kicked out of a Phoenix movie theater despite having a ticket is suing the movie chain for racial discrimination. His video of the incident (watch it here), which occurred in 2019, went viral at the time.
Accused of sneaking in, he showed the manager his ticket, but was ordered to leave and escorted out by police anyway. The theater chain later offered him an apology and a voucher “for a free movie, soda, and popcorn,” but he’s not having it. The lawsuit asks for $100,000 of damages. Read story here.
The lawsuit alleges Larry Shelton was racially profiled. “He had to, as so often many African Americans have to do, fight against the presumption of guilt, fight against the presumption of being illegitimate, fight against the presumption of being the stereotype that many in society place upon African Americans,” noted civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the man, said in a statement.
But there’s no overt evidence of this, at least not in the video. The security guard was black; the manager was white, but no racial language is heard in the conversation. A racial motive — if there was one — has to be inferred from the bare fact that Shelton is black.
According to the Phoenix TV news story below, Shelton purchased his ticket online, and was confronted after he went to a rest room. He may have been mistaken for someone else who did enter through an exit door. The security guard can be heard explaining he’s being asked to leave for “creating a disturbance.” He is, in fact, disputatious throughout the encounter.
It’s probably a case of raised hackles on both sides. If theater staff have a legitimate reason to suspect a person snuck in without paying, it’s not unreasonable to ask if they have a ticket. Everyone should remain polite, the patron should produce the ticket, staff should say, “thank you, we apologize,” and that should end it. Instead, it appears both sides escalated the situation.
While watching videos of police, “Karen,” and other encounters, and reading the back stories in news accounts, I’ve noticed that in the racial incidents that end up on You Tube and in news stories there’s often what you might call a “trigger factor.” This doesn’t mean there are no racist cops or Karens; there clearly are. But what happens is something a person does annoys the other person, then the name-calling begins, and out of the closet comes the racism. But people aren’t perfect, and society is right to censure those who can’t handle everyday frictions and annoyances any better than this.
And Crump has a point. African-Americans often are profiled. They often are assumed to be guilty, put on the spot, and ordered to prove their innocence. This shouldn’t happen to anybody, and should never happen because of someone’s race.
But in court, cases are decided based on the specific facts of the case before the court and jury, and if a racial motive is alleged, it has to be proved. Larry Shelton probably is entitled to more redress than an apology and “free” ticket (there’s nothing free about it; he paid for the ticket AMC is offering to replace), but from the available evidence, I don’t see that he was racially discriminated against. Rather, this was a case of flaring tempers on both sides.
I’d send them both out for de-escalation training. The security guard? He was totally cool, calm, and collected, and doesn’t need to be told how to do his job. I’d make him the instructor.
https://youtu.be/kGoL5lknMCo