Washington Wizard executive held for stealing from Saks, but the retailer apologizes
Will Dawkins, the general manager of the Washington Wizards of the NBA who was held by police and a security guard for allegedly stealing clothing from the Saks Fifth Avenue store in Miami, said he is using his prominent position to address racial profiling which happens mostly to Black men.
Dawkins told Andscape that his story will help others who don’t have opportunities to discuss the issue of racial profiling.
He was held during a racial profiling event in 2023 that is only now being revealed.
Dawkins said he had walked out of Saks located in the Brickell City Centre when a security guard ran up to him, grabbed him, and accused him of stealing.
A Miami police officer assisted the guard. Another cop researched Dawkins’s name online before leaving the store.
The Saks security guard insisted that Dawkins was stealing, which made him angry. They confiscated his cell phone, rifled through his pockets, and went through a bag he held.
After determining that Dawkins was not stealing merchandise, Saks officials asked him to sign a paper, which he refused to do until his security team arrived.
Later, it was learned that the guard and the police confused Dawkins with another man engaged in what they deemed suspicious behavior in the store, underscoring that we all look alike. The security guard has been fired.
Later, a top Saks official called Dawkins to apologize. Dawkins said he would continue to shop at malls, but I didn’t.
Many years ago, I was shopping in Saks’s Michigan Avenue store in Chicago when a Black woman appeared out of nowhere and began monitoring my every movement.
At the same time, an elderly White woman saleswoman told me something unbelievably racist.
She said White men and White women didn’t like shopping there because there were too many “Niggers” who were customers.
After I went home, I cut up my Saks credit card, and I never went back.
Back to Dawkins, Saks made large contributions to benefit service organizations in Miami, Washington, D.C., and Springfield, Massachusetts, where Dawkins grew up.