She may be racist, but if in the course of her shopkeeping she sees that a much higher portion of kids from certain backgrounds break glasses, what is she to do? She's obviously seen more kids handle sunglasses than you or I ever will, and she can draw whatever conclusions she likes from that sample. She could have phrased her conclusions a little better though.

Of course she could just be a racist with a bias against minorities which she chooses to express through the medium of sunglass handling rules.

It's unfortunate, but if you think it's heartbreaking you're missing the point of the article. Trust structures are highly cultural. E.g. consider the example of Japanese people leaving their cell phones on tables to reserve them and walking away, mentioned above. Obviously there is going to be a lot of friction and resentment when a poorly-assimilated group of immigrants, who don't have that same cultural indoctrination, is introduced into a high-trust society.

I'm Bangladeshi. There are a lot of things I do here in the U.S. that I wouldn't do in Dhaka. Is that racist?

The shopkeeper sounded like the sign arose from previous incidences. Sure, maybe it's wrong to generalize, but I can understand that she wants to protect her wares, and it seems that in her experience, children from different cultures behave in different ways.

> That someone would be so comfortable being so overtly racist in front of a complete stranger who is also a customer.

In the spirit of the article, by being so open, the shopkeeper demonstrated trust in a complete stranger.

How would you have preferred the shopkeeper acted?