An At House retail store employee has been fired after racially profiling a Black couple while they were shopping for a Christmas tree.
The two New Yorkers said they were singled out because of their race and are now wondering if other people see them as criminals, much like the worker and the two officers at the store did.
The two took to social media, posting a video on the husband’s @fuljenshenry TikTok account about their shopping experience at the Destiny USA Mall in Syracuse, New York, on Saturday, Nov. 25. The video, lasting around five-and-a-half minutes, received over 334,000 views within days of its posting and featured Fuljens Henry, a content creator, and his wife Ana tearfully detailing the account.
“We’re sharing a horrible experience that we had at the At Home store in Destiny,” the woman said, shaking as she recalled the offense.
According to Ana, she and her husband were “accused by an officer of collaborating with two other people [of] stealing a tree.”
“It was the worst experience,” she said, “He didn’t ask nicely. He just outright accused.”
Henry says that they were actually buying a pink tree with white dressings when they were approached. The officers, whom he identified as Officer Gerber and Officer Earl, assert that he and his wife were talking on the phone with two other people who stole a tree from the store.
Frustrated, Henry told the officers to check the store tapes and monitor from when he got out of his car up to that point, and he would see that they had been mistaken. The DIY YouTuber asked to see the manager.
“We were trying to speak with the manager. Come to find out, the manager accused us because we were the two only other Black people in the store,” Henry said. “This has never ever, and I am speaking for the both of us, has never happened to us in our entire life.”
Many on social media responded to their video, saying the manager should be fired and that…
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