Woman Yells Out At Walmart For Putting Security Tags On Darker Makeup Only

credit: thedailydot

A 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.

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, but once you get to the darker shades they have security tags all over them but they don't for the lighter colours."

She asks: "Walmart, tell me that you're racist without actually saying that you're racist?"

Last year, Walmart's security policy had been the subject of a federal discrimination lawsuit, which was later dropped, after it implied that black people were more likely to shoplift but the practice had come under renewed scrutiny.

Video of the most recent incident has amassed over 1.3million views since being uploaded online, with many views expressing their disgust.

Viewers were divided on what they thought qualified as "racist."

"I’ve gone to 5+ Walmarts where they lock up all the Black hair care & makeup. Then you have to WAIT like 25-30 minutes to find somebody that has the key in order for you to pick out your item, THEN the worker rushes you and walks your item up behind the register. But It cost $5. " a woman said.

"I work in a store in a prominently black community. More is stolen in the yt section! I RARELY see things stolen from the ethnic products!! 1 of my depts is hair/skin care. Been workin for the public for 30 yrs. Never had a prob w/poc. Always white people. Do better!" another woman tweeted.

Others needed more information before they could be convinced.

"Does that make it racist or did they just identify the product that is ACTUALLY most frequently stolen and tag it?" 

"You do know that it is more likely they lose more of that one product than anything to do with racism. If people are stealing product X, you put tags on them to lower the theft. Not cause you want to be racists towards any one group. Theft increases the cost for everything."

In a statement, a Walmart spokesperson told Newsweek the incident was being looked into on Monday evening while noting that security policies may differ between individual stores.

"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." the spokesperson said.

"In this case, we are following up with the store to ensure those policies were followed properly."