A CVS pharmacy is making headlines once again due to its racist staff, and this time, an incident out of a store in Tulsa, Oklahoma has gone viral.
Kendriana Washington is speaking out about the moment she was a victim of racial profiling that she captured on video and posted to Twitter on July 15.
The footage begins with Washington explaining what prompted her to capture the racially charged exchange with two white employees, referred to as Tanya and Debbie during a live streaming to Facebook, per BET.com.
It all began when Washington, who suffers from a chronic illness, used the drive-thru pharmacy to pay for her medication. When her debit card was declined, Washington asked Debbie to try another register, but was told: “No. You don’t have enough money on your account. That’s usually what that means.”
According to Washington, she then parked and goes inside to complete her purchase by withdrawing funds from the ATM machine, telling Debbie: “You said that I didn’t have money in my account. Here’s the cash right here… You are discriminating against me, your comments were racist and I’m filing a complaint against you. Take my money and give me my prescription now.”
Tanya apologies for the mishap, but Washington ain’t having it.
“I don’t want to hear what you have to say. I don’t want to hear your excuses and I do not accept your apology. Just get my prescription so I can leave. Here’s the money.”
Tanya then chimes in with: “I don’t like your tone. You need to change your tone,” before calling the police on her. She is also heard telling the 911 operator that Washington was “yelling at the top of her voice.”
Washington tells Tanya that she would have never called 911 if she wasn’t black, to which Tanya fires back with: “I have black friends… it means I’m not racist.”
CVS has since replied to Washington’s Twitter post, claiming the company does not tolerate discrimination.
In an official statement to BET Mike DeAngelis, Senior Director of Corporate Communications, told the outlet:
“We sincerely apologize to Ms. Washington for her experience in one of our Tulsa stores. As soon as we learned of this incident, we contacted her and conducted a thorough investigation. As a result, the two employees who were involved are no longer employed by CVS.
We are committed to providing courteous service and maintaining a welcoming environment in our stores. We have thorough non-discrimination policies and employee training in place to help ensure that all customers are treated with respect and dignity. Profiling or any other type of discriminatory behavior is strictly prohibited, and against everything we stand for.”
This isn’t the first time CVS has come under fire for racial discrimination. We previously reported how a Chicago CVS store manager, Morry Matson, was fired last July after calling police on a black woman because he determined that a coupon she presented for her purchase was fraudulent.
Matson and a second employee who was involved are “no longer employed by CVS Health,” the company said in a statement on its Twitter at the time.
The company’s statement went on to add that CVS has “firm non-discrimination policies in place to help ensure that all customers are treated with respect and dignity. Profiling or any other type of discriminatory behavior is strictly prohibited.”
