Today (2/17/26) I watched a truly horrific experience unfold at TJ Maxx of Astoria (22-06 21st Street). I arrived to the store around 10:40am, eager to check out the merchandise (as the store was not very crowded). Upon exiting from the escalator, I went over to browse the clothing section. After selecting a shirt, I walked over and got in the checkout line to make my purchase (and I was happy because there were only two customers ahead of me - the lines at this store are always ridiculously long). As I moved up in line and got closer to the registers I noticed that only two were open (I believe they were registers 5 and 8). The cashier at register 8 was a light skinned, thin woman with black rim glasses and the cashier at register 5 was a light skinned, medium build woman with blonde/light brown hair. I also noticed a customer (a Black man with dreadlocks, in his late twenties/early thirties) at register 8 who was having an issue making his purchase due to the incompetency of the cashier. He said out loud in a frustrated, yet calm voice "I keep asking you a question and you keep ignoring me. You're telling me what to do but you're not answering my question." Watching all of this unfold, it became clear that the man was simply asking for a price check on one of the items he wanted to purchase, as the price tag was not properly labeled. It was also evident that the cashier was being quite unhelpful as the man said to her "I might as well go over to this other register to checkout because you keep walking over to her (the other cashier) to ask her what to do because the store didn't training you correctly". At this point, it was clear that both cashiers were just doing racism/white supremacy (during Black History Month no less!) and trying to make the Black man look like a trouble-maker solely because he was Black and having real human emotions, instead of helping him. This behavior from the cashiers prompted the customers in front of me to begin to say something about "those types of customers" and as a white ally, I quickly and firmly shut them down and said that I've had my own experiences at this store with the incompetent cashiers and that they have clearly not been properly trained and that the man has every right to be upset. Eventually, a third employee came over and was able to give a price check on the item so that the man could finally make his purchase. After the man left, I was directed to make my purchase at register 8. While I was being rung up, my cashier picked up the phone and told the cashier at register 5 that she was going to call security. This was the most blatant act of racism/white supremacy ever - a Black man made you feel bad because he called out your incompetence so you have to retaliate by calling the cops! If you are a BIPOC please watch your back in this store because the employees would rather enact white supremacy and have you potentially locked up/killed by law enforcement than hold themselves accountable and do their jobs correctly. After all, capitalism goes hand-in-hand with white supremacy! read more