Is there anywhere black people can go where they won’t be harassed? Wakanda doesn’t count because technically it’s fictional.
Two black women are accusing a Walgreens in Miramar, Fla. (of course it’s Florida), of racially profiling them after they had their bags searched upon leaving the store after paying for their items.
Crystal Davis and her cousin Santanna Neal had gone into the retailer to purchase beauty supplies, but Davis was soon posting to social media, detailing the treatment she received not only upon entering the store but even after leaving.
“As soon as we walked in the store, we kept hearing the alerts: ‘Security, check the floor,” Davis said, according to WPLG-TV.
Davis added that she and Neal were both followed and watched over by an employee as they shopped. One would think that after watching them like a hawk, the store would have no reason to call out the women, but this is America.
After making their purchase and leaving, the women were stopped by three officers as they were going back to their car.
“We were just rushed by three officers,” Davis said.
The officers reportedly said that they had gotten a report about shoplifting. Davis obviously wasn’t buying it.
“How?” Davis said, volunteering to be searched. “Here’s our bags. Here’s our receipt,” the news station reports.
Video of the incident shows an officer rifling through the women’s bags. Of course the cop was unable to find any stolen items, and the women were then told they could leave.
However, the women aren’t ready to let the incident die down.
“It was like a profiling situation from the very beginning,” Davis said.
She acknowledged that the Walgreens manager at the time was black but doesn’t think that matters in this scenario.
“Your race doesn’t mean anything,” Davis said. “I can racially profile against another black person. You can be racially profiled against your own kind. We weren’t the only ones in the store, but we were being followed. We were harassed and they had no proof of anything.”
According to the news channel, Walgreens has been in contact with the women, and the Miramar Police Department is aware of the situation, although, of course, it had to add that the women volunteered to be searched.
But that doesn’t matter, because Davis has said that she won’t be shopping at Walgreens again.