An African-American woman had her shopping experience brought to an unpleasant halt recently when she was asked to leave a Victoria’s Secret store because of her race.
Kimberly Houzah says she was shopping at the store’s Quintard Mall location in Oxford, Alabama, when she was abruptly approached by a store associate and asked to leave. No explanation was provided. She soon learned that another Black woman had been caught shoplifting in the store that day, so the Victoria’s Secret employee asked her to leave as a––blatantly racist––precaution.
Houzah shared the ridiculous incident on social media via a video posted to her personal Facebook page, in which she can be seen breaking down in tears over the humiliation of being racially profiled.
Houzah said she later received an apology from the company once her video went viral. Victoria’s Secret also released an official statement on its Facebook page to address the incident, reassuring everyone reading that the worker at the center of it all was no longer with the company.
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“We take the experience of our customer at the Quintard Mall very seriously and have reached out to her directly to express our sincere apology,” the statement read. “What happened at our store should not have happened and does not represent who we are or what we stand for.”
Shopping while Black strikes again.