“I was in a popular drugstore looking for a hair product,” writes black writer Robin Yaesha Deane in a March 18, 2000, Los Angeles Times editorial. “Surprisingly, it was not in aisle 4 with the other hair products. It was in the front of the store, locked up in a glass cabinet with a bolt lock. The hair colors and perms kits for African American women were the only products locked and marked ‘ethnic products’ even though Los Angeles is a city where there is a diversity of ethnicities. The items were locked because management feared that these items would be stolen if unlocked.”

Many blacks, Latinos, and Asians report experiences similar to Deane’s: disrespectful treatment, poor service, prejudiced comments, and encounters with people who are suspicious of them because of their ethnicity or color. While civil...