People who work at fancy schmancy stores are still pretending that they have life-changing equity in the company or will be able to pass it down to their children. This was the case when really well-known, “but still Black”, celebs Wendy Williams, NeNe Leakes and Marlo Hampton decided to go on a shopping trip at New York’s Bergdorf Goodman.
As they proceeded to enter the store, Williams bought something on sight. But, that wasn’t enough surety for the security that the “everybody knows they’re wealthy but you” group could afford a store like that.
Talk show host Williams and Hampton of RHOA fame both noticed that security was on some alleged racial profiling “following them through the store and keep an eye on them” stuff. Williams talked about the incident on The Wendy Williams Show.
“I ended up buying a negligee — NeNe bout a handful of gowns, you know, $2,000 a piece. Marlo charged a whole bunch of stuff. But, let me tell you something about these girls. We not just shopped, we went upstairs and we had lunch, the whole bit. It was the three of us takeover and can I tell you something about security. They treated us like the hood that they treat us,” said Williams as she rubbed her hand suggesting it had something to do with skin color.
“You can earn what you want, you can do what you want,” she continued. “But, when you are what you are, you better not be surprised at how people treat you — We were followed. And not with a lit credit card followed. Followed like we might have to do something.”
NeNe Leakes said on the Breakfast Club that she didn’t even notice security following them until Hampton mentioned it to her.
Bergdorf Goodman has yet to release a serious statement addressing the claims made by Williams, except to say in an email that they “take each of [their] customers’ concerns seriously and …regret not meeting expectations.”
Too often, employees in these types of stores go over and beyond their call of duty to do their job and end up making the experience terrible for the very customers that keep them in business.
If there were orders to “watch this group” more-so than they would do for any other customer for whatever reason, then the store should have enlisted superb customer service and care as a tactic to fulfill their unwarranted paranoia.
Now that Williams has made it know that the experience at Bergdorf was horribly racist, it would be only reasonable for the store to issue an apology, maybe in the form of a public statement, a box full of store goodies and reprimanding of the overzealous security team.
Lastly, it’s important that people like the security team remember, you’re the one WORKING in the store. It’s ridiculous when customers go to fancy restaurants or over-priced stores and get disrespected or mistreated by the snooty workers, knowing that the employees are working in a position that keeps them in the lower to middle class status quo and possibly have them living on a check to check basis while they blindly build someone else’s dream instead of working their own.
Attitude and human decency is everything in this case. Do better.
