How can you say discrimination?

Walgreens has been slapped with a federal lawsuit for discrimination because they have "unjustly" placed African-American employees in under performing urban stores in predominantly African-American neighborhoods.

Just like the Walgreens company, I believe people like to see a reflection of themselves staring back at me when I go to the store. In African-American communities, sorry to say it, people like African-Americans to serve them. In white areas people like white people serving them. On Neptune, people like Neptunians serving them. Walgreens has the highest percentage of minorities I have seen of any retail store and offers service in many languages. Perhaps it was just making good business decisions to have African-American managers and pharmacists in urban stores located in African-American neighborhoods.

While the ideal world would be colorblind, the real one is not. That is a sad fact, however, providing customers with service representatives that represent the population is not discrimination, it is good business. I am glad for civil rights laws, but this is an abuse.

I would believe that in giving communities staff which is representative of the area, we are accepting and acknowledging the differences in culture and attempting to better serve the customer. If you don't feel comfortable with your pharmacist, you will not talk to them. While African-American pharmacists and managers might not be the only way to make a patient visiting a neighborhood Walgreens feel at ease, it is a start. A patient at ease and comfortable with their pharmacist will communicate better and be better served by the expertise of the pharmacist's consultation.