Unfortunately in 2020, Black women are still being racially profiled in luxury department stores.
Daytime talk shot host Wendy Williams opened up about her own experience with shopping while Black when she stopped by New York City’s Bergdorf Goodman with her friends from Real Housewives of Atlanta, Nene Leakes and Marlo Hampton. Williams revealed on her show Monday morning that the trio were followed by security, although they all spent loads of money on the chic clothing that the department store has a reputation of sourcing.
Much like William’s testament, Hampton confirmed to ESSENCE during a sit-down interview Tuesday that the ladies were shopping in a private suite and went to grab food at the department store’s cafe when they noticed a security guard was following them.
“Maybe they’re infatuated with us, maybe this a new security that they’re offering,” Hampton initially believed, before realizing that the security guard may have had more racially-motivated reasons to be tailing them.
“We need people to really be better trained in diversity because my money is not black, it’s not brown, it’s not white–it’s green like theirs,” said Hampton.
Earlier this week, ESSENCE reached out to Bergdorf Goodman and its parent company, Neiman Marcus, who had no comment. Still, a rep said in an email: “We take each of our customers’ concerns seriously and we regret not meeting…expectations.”
