America appears to be suffering an epidemic of service staff so petrified of black people they call the police on them for merely standing, talking, eating, or using a bathroom.

 

A Chili’s in Virginia apparently called the police on a group of black people who were talking in the parking after purchasing their to-go food, News One reports.

 

“We were racially profiled and marked as threats because we are Black,” Jhordi Henderson wrote on his Facebook page, according to WWL-TV, which first reported the incident.

 

“You can spend your money at chili’s if you want, but my black a** works too hard to give chili’s another dollar after being treated the way I was,” he said.

 

In the video, the officers approach the men and explain that the Chili’s is closing and staff want the friends off the property.

 

“All we’re doing is talking,” a man politely explains. “Why? Cause we’re black and we’re talking?”

 

“No…” the officer wanly replies. “It’s private property and they can decide who they want here and who they don’t want here,” he impatiently follows up.

 

“They didn’t even ask us to leave, why are they calling the police?” a woman demands to know.

The officers don’t have much of an answer for her.

 

America has a dark history of anti-loitering laws and similar measures designed to police poor people of color. And encounters between black people and police can quickly escalate and turn deadly: a Vox analysis of available FBI found black people made up 31 percent of police killing victims in 2012 at just 13 percent of the US population.