"Oh, I'm sorry, he was here before me..."

Coming from my experience working in retail, unless the guy had Aryan Nation tats, more likely than not this guy was working in a severely understaffed store.

He was probably in the middle of doing a shitton of time sensitive tasks before he was interrupted by some bullshit manager that told him to help out with the checkout line and then get back to doing the million other things he needed to do before his shift was over.

He was probably doing the bare minimum to be able to say "yes, I helped out the checkout line like you said" before getting back to more important things.

In situations like this it's not even clear if it is racism. There are a million other reasons why the cashier could have done that. Don't just automatically jump to racism as a first conclusion any time a person of color is slighted.

If it were overt, and you are the type of person who would speak up for yourself, and the victim looks like they even want interference from a third party, then absolutely speak up. But don't go jumping into other people's business when there's a chance your interference is going to be another thing they have to deal with that they didn't want to deal with. If they live in racist areas, then racism is something that members of whatever race is discriminated against deals with on a regular basis. They're going to pick and choose their own battles.

I'd tell him to add his items to mine and buy them for him. If the cashier refused I would make them explain why to me.

"Oh, I'm sorry, you have only a couple of things, please go first".

But it's normal to freeze when shocked, and if it was not racism I do feel like the cashier would have just asked the guy behind you to put the sign after his stuff. I would have interpreted this just like you, and was a cashier for a long time. If there is a short line, you ask the last person to place the sign. If there is a long line, all bets off, it has to stop somewhere.

While this might not be racist if the cashier had other reasons to close the line as the comments in this thread may suggest, it is a sort of death by a thousand paper cuts for minorities that go through this. Actual racists like to hide their racism in plausible deniability. So it makes it difficult for anyone to call them out. Someone in the comments said they “hate when people assume it’s racism” but I feel like they haven’t considered how often BIPOC ppl have to make that call. It’s such a mental load and it sucks.

People also go through this when it comes to sexual harassment. Like, if someone puts their hands on your waist to move past you in a narrow hallway, you have no idea whether they’re acting innocently or not. But if they do that to no one else except you… it starts looking sus. That’s how a lot of this bad behavior goes. It’s not as simple as giving everyone the benefit of the doubt, because bad actors take advantage of your doubt to act how they will.

So don’t assume the cashier was being racist, but don’t assume they weren’t either. Be suspicious of bs like that, and act accordingly.

Did the cashier give off body language suggesting they closed the line due to not liking the guy behind you?

I don't know under what circumstances a cashier might open a line only briefly, but I often realize I forgot something right when I start an activity.

But yeah, if they caught a glimpse of the guy behind you and then closed down in a pissy way, I'd probably start by offering to be a supporting voice during a complaint to the store management. If it's any kind of pattern, the cashier will likely be out of a job.

Call them out on it. "Do you have a reason why you needed to close this line and not serve him?" Then be ready to walk out, or take a pic of the cashier and send an email to corporate for the store.

Buying the guy's stuff could be classy, or it could be demeaning depending on if he can see you as an ally.

I'd be damn willing to walk out and let them put all the stuff back while I go somewhere else.

If it was just the one person, and only those three items, I'd just tell them to chuck them on and I'll grab it to save the hassle. I honestly wouldn't have considered racism as a factor, just that the checkout person was being a proper cunt, so taking their win away is a win-win for everyone on the other side of the counter. The appropriate thing for staff to do is pass the closed sign and ask the guy behind you to put it down, so he's the last.

But if there was still a line, often that happens because the person is long due for break and busting or hungry, and every time they try close more people pull in. So you could be looking into it too much if that's the case.

possible that I misunderstood the situation

This one. Carry on.

"Excuse me, but he was in line."

There may have been an innocent reason for the cashier's behavior that had nothing to do with skin color. I had saw something similar where it may have been interpreted at racism but really the person was incompetent at their job. Either way good on you for caring

"Oh I'm sorry I have a few more things to get." Then buy the stuff the dude had behind you and do not break eye contact with the cashier.

If the guy behind wants to pay you back let them.

Edit: I misread the typo ~~Also Boy is considered by some as a derogatory term especially when said by a white man about a black man~~

https://readerandtext.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2019/11/07/racism-in-the-word-boy/

In my opinion this is a good excuse to go full Karen on the place. Demand to talk to a manager. Just don't go al REEEEE on them. But do feel free to make a spectacle. Call them out for the races bullshit.

You need to make up something that creates a connection between the black man and you. For example, could he be your uncle, your brother-in-iaw, your daughter's boyfriend...

Now you ask the cashier loud and clear, but very kindly, to serve this man, and make it clear that you came together with your daughter's boyfriend and you are going to leave together but if he needs to wait in another queue again, then you would need to wait for him as well, and therefore could he please?

This way you have destroyed the discrimination scheme. You made it impossible for the cashier to give you an advantage and that man a disadvantage.

After all is done, you can still tell him that you have seen what he tried, and next time you would inform the store manager and maybe you even say a few things more.