We are going hypothetical today:

The scene: A fast food chain, 12:30 on a Monday afternoon, COVID era

The players: Three employees behind the counter, five people waiting for their food, two people on line waiting to order, one ordering

Person A is the next person on the food line waiting to order. There is one person behind Person A.

Person A is looking at their phone trying to recall what their family wants from this establishment

Person A feels a medium sized tug on their pocketbook which is cross shoulder on their body. The small bag is slightly open because Person A just took out their phone.

Person A jumps with a start because someone is close enough to have their hands on the personal belongings of A. This is covid time and their is a person standing within one foot of Person A even though there are clear designations as to where everyone should be standing and everyone else in the store is observing these protocols.

If you are Person A how do you react?

Scream?

Hit the person?

Make a scene?

Call the police?

What would you do if you were on line in a store and someone tried to pick your pocket?

Real life- this happens to you- what do you do?

Ok- now let’s play with this scenario:

What if Person A was a person of color, and everyone else in the store was not? Are your reactions different than what you said before?

What if Person A was not a person of color, but everyone else in the store was? Do your reactions differ?

Does the gender of Person A and the pickpocket matter? They’re one of each? They’re both the same gender? Does gender affect your thoughts on this?

How about age? Say the pickpocket is a teen? Or, Person A is a teen? Does that change your reaction?

Now for the final talking point:

If this situation were to happen in real life, and someone was to film it, the only thing that would be recorded is the what happened after. Person A makes some sort of reaction, someone else films it. Do you take this possibility into consideration in the split second it takes to realize that you are being pickpocketed? Is your first thought- “Oh- everyone has phones and will record how I act?” or do you just protect yourself and your property?

Discuss:

If you are going to play the drinking game to my podcast from last night, the word is “interesting”.