During Juneteenth Weekend At That: Same-Sex Black Couple Racially Profiled At Bed, Bath, & Beyond For ‘Too Many High-Ticket Items’
Source: PATRICK T. FALLON / Getty
It literally never fails. Anytime Black folks are living their Black a** lives during a time of Black a** celebration, the soup cookies come to rain salt on our parade.
Imagine that. Purchasing your first home. Excited to begin building generational wealth. And then you visit a @BedBathBeyond store and you’re accused of shoplifting because you “had too many high ticket items in your cart.” pic.twitter.com/GNib2O90CC
— Lamar Richards (@lamarrichards_) June 20, 2023
Attempting to purchase a @roborockglobal vacuum resulted in the police being falsely called on two, young Black, gay guys simply shopping. During Juneteenth weekend and Pride Month, no less.
— Lamar Richards (@lamarrichards_) June 20, 2023
The latest viral example of racism involves a gay Black couple and a bigoted and bankrupted Bed, Bath & Beyond in Ohio at the center of racial profiling not only during Juneteenth weekend but during Pride Month. According to The Independent, a man named Lamar Richards and his partner were shopping at the home goods store and purchased $600 worth of items before the police were called. A store employee can be heard on the now-viral video trying to defend the store’s decision to involve the bacon boys after Richards questioned their motives…
In response, the employee suggests says “there’s usually a question” when shoppers have too many “big purchase items”, suggesting they were acting in accordance with store policy.
Ubiquitous civil rights attorney shared Lamar’s 4-minute video of the offensive back-and-forth.
A Black couple says an employee at a Bed, Bath, and Beyond in Toledo, Ohio, called the police on them for allegedly having “too many high ticket items” in their shopping cart. They deserve answers for this humiliating experience!
🎥: @lamarrichards_ pic.twitter.com/KV0bbUzZM4
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) June 19, 2023
Lamar has since released a litany of tweets recapping the unacceptable situation and noting that he felt absolutely humiliated by what went down.
When I asked the manager and the employee that called the police WHY they called they stated “it’s our right to call.” They described us to the police as “two black guys.”
— Lamar Richards (@lamarrichards_) June 16, 2023
The police did not approach us until AFTER we spent $600 in the store and said “they thought you were shoplifting.” We had no idea the police were there because they were called for us.
— Lamar Richards (@lamarrichards_) June 16, 2023
I have a Johns Hopkins T-shirt and my boyfriend has on a Michigan College of Pharmacy T-shirt. We literally just wanted to buy some stuff for our new house and THIS is the welcome we get to the area.
— Lamar Richards (@lamarrichards_) June 16, 2023
We were not given a way to contact corporate or the district manager. The police only said “you all did nothing wrong” pic.twitter.com/6nLnLi0VNS
— Lamar Richards (@lamarrichards_) June 16, 2023
I’ve have never felt so humiliated in my entire life. I sat in the car for more than an hr after this happened, praying asking God to give me peace and calm my anxiety.
— Lamar Richards (@lamarrichards_) June 16, 2023
This bum a** excuse of business filed for bankruptcy back in April and all 475 stores in the United States will be closed for good by the end of June. While that might sound fitting, the unfortunate part is that there will be no “canceling” or corporate escalation for accountability.
Looks like God, the universe, and Twitter will have to extract whatever form of justice that can be achieved given the situation.
