Racial Profiling on the Main Road

Taxis leaving town, whether they're going to Manenberg or Wynberg, all go past Mowbray. So if you're on the Main Road at any point between Town and Mowbray, and you want to get off before or at Mowbray, you can jump on any taxi you please. However, if you're Wynberg-bound, your options dwindle somewhat. Who goes to Wynberg? Well, considering that the Wynberg route goes through the heart of the southern'burbs, it's them middle-class bourgeoisie, who are coinky-dink making use of public transport... Ok, so that doesn't work. Mainly, it's students and Americans. And the odd suburban adventurer, occasionally. Look, it's easier to say that anyone who isn't on the Town-Wynberg route, is darker than white. So when as a white woman, I want to hop on a non-Wynberg taxi, there are always questions, raised eyebrows, suspiciously pursed lips and the endearing refrain: "Where are you going girlie?"

(I should point out that usually you don't get asked where you're going until you're on the taxi and whipping out your coins.)

Point is, for a while now, I've been frustrated that I get little response from passing taxi's when I parade my waving hands in front of them as I try to go from Salt River back home to Obs--both stops along the Town-Mowbray route, so really I could get on any taxi. I had started to suspect that it is my milky hue that puts-off the traveling salesmen, so like any keen observer of social beings, I watched which taxis stopped for whom. I noticed that when on a Manenberg taxi, waving white clients weren't much cause for a pause, but that the taxi would slow-down and start a-cruising when it was a coloured woman waiting for a ride. Yesterday, I got my final clinching proof that gaaitjies do indeed engage in a bit of amateur racial profiling to target potential clients.

I was on a Wynberg taxi, driving away from town, and we had just past the Chippies when the gaaitjie tapped on the door in the universal "stop" signal to the driver, obviously having spotted a potential customer. The driver wasn't slowing, I assume this is what he was thinking: "It's getting late, and the time for going to campus (on the route) or shopping at Cavendish (on the route) is over. There aren't that many Wynberg-route users left on the roads, just a few late workers making their way back home to the Flats". So he kept going, until the gaaitjie shouted: "She's white!" and we came to a inconsiderate halt.

Know thy target market right?