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Some signs of racism are much more obvious than others.
One woman was looking at makeup at a Kentucky Walmart and started perusing their concealer selection, including Maybelline's Fit Me! line, which has one of the widest ranges of diverse shades. She quickly noticed a probable sign of racism, as only the darkest shades of the concealer were tagged with security stickers, while none of the lighter shades were tagged.
The woman, who goes by Alyson on TikTok, shared a video on the platform about what she discovered, which quickly went viral.
You can watch the video here:
Racist Walmart in Kentucky puts security tags on just the darker shades of makeup https://t.co/gMn7qCylZw— Fifty Shades of Whey (@Fifty Shades of Whey) 1614627752.0
In the video, Alyson observed:
"Okay, so, I'm at my local Walmart, and I'm looking at the makeup section, and I noticed this..."
"I'm looking at the concealers, and they're all normal (untagged), but then once you get to the darker shades, they have security tags all over them."
"But they don't for the lighter shades."
Then in true TikTok fashion, Alyson said:
"So Walmart, tell me that you're racist without actually saying that you're racist."
In the meantime, the song "Oh No" by Capone was playing in the background, which TikTokers commonly use when they or someone else in their video has messed up.
And Alyson clearly believes Walmart has.
The video quickly went viral on TikTok and was then shared on Twitter, where it has been viewed more than 311-thousand times.
But viewers were divided on what they thought qualified as "racist."
Some were grateful to Alyson for pointing out the problem and holding corporate giants accountable.
@davenewworld_2 This is exhausting— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@Rex Chapman🏇🏼) 1614630067.0
@davenewworld_2 I’ve gone to 5+ Walmarts where they lock up all the Black hair care & makeup. Then you have to WAIT… https://t.co/07s0HH3mCP— Tifféloyx is Excessively Black (@Tifféloyx is Excessively Black) 1614662214.0
@PoetRobert143 @davenewworld_2 I'll believe this when I see the statistics on stolen cosmetic products from that Wa… https://t.co/Fn3rWKFfMt— Brian Rosenworcel (@Brian Rosenworcel) 1614628307.0
@davenewworld_2 Bruh, you had me at Kentucky.— BigTeezy (@BigTeezy) 1614627839.0
@davenewworld_2 Lock them all or don't lock any.— ⚓ Mike L.A. 💙🇺🇲 (@⚓ Mike L.A. 💙🇺🇲) 1614630216.0
@davenewworld_2 @Walmart I work in a store in a prominently black community ❤. More is stolen in the yt section! I… https://t.co/ei2uG8ZVbY— Stacy Travis (@Stacy Travis) 1614631075.0
Others needed more information before they could be convinced.
@davenewworld_2 Does that make it racist or did they just identify the product that is ACTUALLY most frequently stolen and tag it?— Keanu Bleeves (@Keanu Bleeves) 1614629878.0
@davenewworld_2 You do know that it is more likely they lose more of that one product than anything to do with raci… https://t.co/aaAz3tg45z— Robert Fortin (@Robert Fortin) 1614628128.0
@davenewworld_2 No offense my man...(& lady)--but this is dumb. If a retail store has data points/proof that a part… https://t.co/0qzVvLzeWT— Ed Harkin (@Ed Harkin) 1614630501.0
After the video went viral, Walmart put out a statement.
A spokesperson said:
"We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind at Walmart."
"We serve millions of customers weekly, crossing all demographics, and are focused on meeting their needs while providing the best shopping experience at each store."
"Like other retailers, we have policies and training in place that allow individual stores to add additional security for items, such as electronics, automotive products, cosmetics, and other personal care products, to ensure they are available for sale to our customers."
"In this case, we are following up with the (Kentucky) store to ensure those policies were followed properly."
Hopefully Walmart gets this sorted out. It would be nice to believe this was a simple case of human error, with only some products being tagged, but it's suspicious to see only one range of shades being tagged.
We have enough of a battle on our hands with asking various makeup companies to come out with more diverse shades for all the people who would like to use their products.
We really don't need added issues of accessibility or assumptions about a person's integrity based on their skin color, do we?