Tammy Rivera Malphurs claimed that a CVS manager racially profiled her on a late-night run to get hair supplies. The "Charlie" singer recorded herself ranting as she explained the situation in a video posted on Instagram, all while capturing the manager in the background.
"I'm in CVS, I come here almost every other night. I know every person that works in this store. I came here to get a satin hair wrap and some Doo Gro oil. This lady sat here—she must be new—she sat here and she watched me on the aisle, acting like she was fixing stuff on the aisle," explained Malphurs in the video.
She detailed how she proceeded to open the hair scarf she came in to buy, at which the employee confronted her, "She's watching me so hard that when I opened this pack, she said, 'Don't do that.' I said, 'Who you talking to?' I said, 'If I'm buying this, I can do whatever I want.'"
The employee laughs as the singer continues on, "Why you watching me from two aisles away telling me not to open something that I'm about to pay for? And then she gon tell me to leave the store. I tell her to call the police."
Tammy posted a follow-up reaction video to her Instagram after leaving the store, "@cvspharmacy, I’m disgusted in the lack of customer service, the disrespect, and the racist profiling I experienced tonight," she wrote.
In a calmer state of mind than the first video, the singer better articulated her emotions during the situation: "Not once did she greet me, not once did she ask if I needed help with anything, not once did she say hello, goodnight, is there anything I can help you with? Can I help you find anything? Instead, as soon as she saw me do something that she [thought] was wrong or she felt...wasn't right, or was against the store policy, she [said] 'Don't do that!'"
Malphurs expressed her frustration on the frequent instances of racial profiling on people of color, and in her own instance, how the manager described her as a "brown-skinned woman" in her call to the police. "I just felt like, why did that even matter?" she explained.
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