Tim Cook Reminds Employees 'Apple Is Open' After Australian Retail Store Employee Bars Black Teens

[Kroo]

Kids with backpacks are kicked out of stores every day, so why is this being made an issue of? Oh, because the kids had dark skin. Seriously, people need to get a grip and stop looking for racist overtones just to beat others up with their PC agenda.

FYI, Sudanese make up less than 0.1% of the Australian population but make up over 5% of the crime statistics. Why? Most of these kids are refugees that have come from war torn regions, have seen death, murders, rapes etc and have severe problems integrating into society and turn to gangs and crime, so you might forgive retail outlets for being a bit paranoid about a situation like this. Rant over.

 

[rdlink]

I agree. But I believe paying correct taxes is also very important. I know here in the UK, the government have been providing corporate giants with certain tax reliefs for doing business here but they still avoid paying the right amount.

What is "the right amount" in your view? They're not breaking the law, so they are paying "the right amount."

 

[576316]

...tell them that their tax laws are burdensome and immoral.

Care to go into a little more (brief) detail of what exactly you mean?

 

[DotCom2]

GAH!
This is 2015!
REALLY AUSTRALIA?!?!

 

[samcraig]

I don't know why that should make you happy. The Australians handled it to the satisfaction of all parties, with a magnanimousness that makes the modern American head spin. Tim Cook then had to piss all over that accomplishment by trying to gin up American-style racial animus over what had happily been a non-event moments earlier.

I didn't use the phrase happy. I said I would have liked - meaning preferred. And while the Aussies handled it well, when something like this hits mainstream media/goes viral, it's definitely something corporate should be responding to. So I disagree. I also don't think he pissed all over anything.

But my, you certainly are fired up over there...

 

[Rogifan]

not justifying it but there are many countries that simply dont have many black people so the only "experience" they have is coming from hollywood movies and lets be honest it sheds a bad light on black people most of the time so prejudices i am not surprised about

Because Hollywood just makes up things about black people and none of it is based in reality? Sorry, no.

Your profile pic is befitting of this rant.

It's not a rant. It's common sense, not PC BS.

 

[mrsir2009]

not justifying it but there are many countries that simply dont have many black people so the only "experience" they have is coming from hollywood movies and lets be honest it sheds a bad light on black people most of the time so prejudices i am not surprised about

Yeah, there aren't many africans in Australia unlike the U.S and U.K. Having said that though, for me personally I have a pretty neutral view on africans since having had few experiences with them also means having had no bad experiences with them.

 

[bpeeps]

FYI, Sudanese make up less than 0.1% of the Australian population but make up over 5% of the crime statistics. Why? Most of these kids are refugees that have come from war torn regions, have seen death, murders, rapes etc and have severe problems integrating into society and turn to gangs and crime, so you might forgive retail outlets for being a bit paranoid about a situation like this.

Ah, profiling at its best.

 

[flux73]

Is Australia a litigious nation? If this happened here, I would be demanding some free gear.

So the correct way to deal with racism is to payoff people? smh. Your point of view represents much of what I detest about culture's entitlement mentality.

 

[mrsir2009]

Ah, profiling at its best.

Why assume profiling is the reason behind the higher crime rate?

 

[rdlink]

Care to go into a little more (brief) detail of what exactly you mean?

It's actually pretty simple. The UK's corporate tax rate was lowered from 28% to 20%, and is now set to be lowered from 20% to 18% in the next five years. While I applaud parliament for realizing that the government wanting nearly a third of someone's income is stupid, counterproductive and overly burdensome, why was it ever set to 28%?

The US corporate tax rate sits at 39.1%. That means that the US treasury wants 4 out of every ten dollars a corporation earns. That's after being able to tax the sales from the enterprise, and the incomes of the employees of the company. It's absurd.

 

[kingtj]

Honestly, I'm not even sure this would have been considered "news" in the U.S.A. right now, except for the fact we're right in the middle of a bunch of accusations of race discrimination and "hate crimes" in several of our colleges and universities. So in that sense, this story lines right up with the narrative.

But yes, I completely understand the concern about refugees. In my home town, they wound up taking in a very large number of Bosnian refugees who made part of the city their new home. Almost immediately, crime surged in the area and bars and restaurants that had been open in those neighborhoods for 50-100 years shut down. (As I understand it, the problem were the teenage kids in most cases. The Bosnian families who came over included parents who were trying to just establish themselves in a new place, but their kids wanted to run around in gangs and "take over" the neighborhood by force.)

There's so much concern about "profiling" and offending somebody by doing it. Yet the reality is, it's effective if it's done in a common sense way. If you observe that consistently, people who dress a certain way or act a certain way, or appear to come from a certain country form the bulk of your problems? Eventually, you'd be stupid not to use that realization to your advantage when trying to determine who will cause you the next problem.

I know over in Israel, they definitely "profile" when screening people before boarding airlines. Guess what? It's effective.

Kids with backpacks are kicked out of stores every day, so why is this being made an issue of? Oh, because the kids had dark skin. Seriously, people need to get a grip and stop looking for racist overtones just to beat other up with their PC agenda.

FYI, Sudanese make up less than 0.1% of the Australian population but make up over 5% of the crime statistics. Why? Most of these kids are refugees that have come from war torn regions, have seen death, murders, rapes etc and have severe problems integrating into society and turn to gangs and crime, so you might forgive retail outlets for being a bit paranoid about a situation like this. Rant over.

 

[bpeeps]

Why assume profiling is the reason behind the higher crime rate?

That's not what I said at all. Statistics don't lie, how the user suggested interpreting those statistics is the definition of racial profiling. Some does not make all.

 

[bpeeps]

There's so much concern about "profiling" and offending somebody by doing it. Yet the reality is, it's effective if it's done in a common sense way. If you observe that consistently, people who dress a certain way or act a certain way, or appear to come from a certain country form the bulk of your problems?

At least until it happens to you.

 

[Kroo]

Ah, profiling at its best.

Something wrong with facts being presented in a discussion? You might try it sometime. I feel for any child that has been raised into violence and war, but do we not all have a choice on how we react? I don't think you can argue it's right to join a gang, robbing from bystanders, retailers, threatening children and creating mayhem in society just because of your circumstances, regardless of skin colour. Since when did the right to break the law overide all other laws?

 

[patseguin]

Yes I saw the video, and there's plenty of room for interpretation. PLENTY.

For example:

1.) What was going on in the store prior to this discussion?

Yep, that's it. It's not even slightly clear to me. I really hope I never end up in court accused of something with some people from this thread on the jury. That's about as one-sided a video as you're going to get.

THAT said, no matter if something fishy was OR wasn't going on in the store, an apology had to be made to save face. It's the nature of business politics.

You said what I was going to post better than I would have. Too many videos are out there like this only showing a small part of what happened. How are we to know what the people were doing in the store? I was in a clothing store as a teenager and made a joke about stealing something to my friend and a security guard heard me and kicked us out. Of course, the internet didn't even exist then but there was no outrage or anything. Someone could have recorded that only when the guy was chewing me out and it would have looked bad.

 

[2457282]

Does the PERIOD indicate that we can't discuss this anymore?

No, just that I had nothing else to say on this topic. I did notice that I actually put a period on the sentence so it really makes no sense. I am slightly embarrassed.

 

[whodatrr]

So I guess there was some fire behind this smoke? I couldn't tell, because so little of the video was shown, and did;t want to rush to premature judgement.

Good for Apple. I'd hate to see my kids treated like that.

 

[mrsir2009]

You said what I was going to post better than I would have. Too many videos are out there like this only showing a small part of what happened. How are we to know what the people were doing in the store? I was in a clothing store as a teenager and made a joke about stealing something to my friend and a security guard heard me and kicked us out. Of course, the internet didn't even exist then but there was no outrage or anything. Someone could have recorded that only when the guy was chewing me out and it would have looked bad.

This. Racism is assumed from a 30 second video where a security guard is asking a bunch of school kids to leave a store. No-one knows what happened before then.

 

[576316]

It's actually pretty simple. The UK's corporate tax rate was lowered from 28% to 20%, and is now set to be lowered from 20% to 18% in the next five years. While I applaud parliament for realizing that the government wanting nearly a third of someone's income is stupid, counterproductive and overly burdensome, why was it ever set to 28%?

The US corporate tax rate sits at 39.1%. That means that the US treasury wants 4 out of every ten dollars a corporation earns. That's after being able to tax the sales from the enterprise, and the incomes of the employees of the company. It's absurd.

But then, I guess countries are quite expensive to run and most of the world's biggest are in lots of debt?

 

[easy4lif]

Before everyone completely condems this managers actions., open apple maps and search for apple stores in your area. In 90% of cases the store is located in an area of affluance or gentrification. In my case. My closest stores are in manhattan beach (affluence) santa monica (affluence) and the grove (gentrification)

They will never open an apple store in compton, inglewood, or south central for the same reasons grocery stores didnt after the 91 riots

Hell look at apples own leadership. White as the day long, with one token minority in hr

 

[Benjamin Frost]

Kids with backpacks are kicked out of stores every day, so why is this being made an issue of? Oh, because the kids had dark skin. Seriously, people need to get a grip and stop looking for racist overtones just to beat others up with their PC agenda.

FYI, Sudanese make up less than 0.1% of the Australian population but make up over 5% of the crime statistics. Why? Most of these kids are refugees that have come from war torn regions, have seen death, murders, rapes etc and have severe problems integrating into society and turn to gangs and crime, so you might forgive retail outlets for being a bit paranoid about a situation like this. Rant over.

Well said, Sir.

This is the problem with Tim Cook; he tries to turn everything into a political issue for his own gain, where there is no issue. It's like his mind-numbing banging on about 'rights', whatever that means. They certainly mean absolutely nothing to Apple, any more than they do to any other company in America. When it comes to employment issues, there are no problems with discrimination in any of the categories that Cook continuously draws attention to. He is, therefore, hoisting his own agenda onto Apple unnecessarily. This is inappropriate for a CEO of any company, let alone Apple.

It is the most reprehensible aspect of Tim's leadership, and represents a deeply hypocritical stance, in view of Apple's highly questionable evasion of tax worldwide and their mercenary use of cheap labour in China. Steve Jobs did well to avoid the political route. I do not think that Tim Cook will be at Apple for much longer, as his insistence on using Apple as a political hobby horse will not be tolerated.

 

[maxsix]

Reminds me of the horrible comments on this website when Dr. Dre joined Apple

Yes, everyone here should have welcomed Dr Dre, given his expertise at wife beating.
Not to mention his criminal record...

(sarcasm)

 

[NY Guitarist]

I'm unable to draw any conclusion from this video as it stands except, as the store employee stated, it was felt they may be trying to steal from the store.

Is there any other corroborating information that would suggest this was a racially motivated? I'm not saying it's not, but based solely on the video, I can't conclude that it was either.

 

[mrsir2009]

Well said, Sir.

This is the problem with Tim Cook; he tries to turn everything into a political issue for his own gain, where there is no issue. It's like his mind-numbing banging on about 'rights', whatever that means. They certainly mean absolutely nothing to Apple, any more than they do to any other company in America. When it comes to employment issues, there are no problems with discrimination in any of the categories that Cook continuously draws attention to. He is, therefore, hoisting his own agenda onto Apple unnecessarily. This is inappropriate for a CEO of any company, let alone Apple.

It is the most reprehensible aspect of Tim's leadership, and represents a deeply hypocritical stance, in view of Apple's highly questionable evasion of tax worldwide and their mercenary use of cheap labour in China. Steve Jobs did well to avoid the political route. I do not think that Tim Cook will be at Apple for much longer, as his insistence on using Apple as a political hobby horse will not be tolerated.

Tax avoision, not evasion. I don't believe Apple has broken any laws, right?