A group of black girls from a summer camp program were “racially profiled and discriminated against” when they were barred from shopping at a Jersey Shore aquarium gift shop last week, a camp leader claimed — and the store employee reportedly has been suspended.
According to a Facebook post by leader Attiya Barrett, a group of seven campers had entered the Jenkinson’s Aquarium boardwalk gift shop at Point Pleasant Beach in New Jersey during a field trip Friday when they were turned away.
“So. My girls went inside the gift shop @jenkinsonaquarium and we were racially profiled and discriminated against!” Barrett said in the post.
“The racist lady behind the counter told 7 of my girls ‘you’re not welcome here without a chaperone,’” the post read. “They left and got a chaperone and went back in she then said ‘Didn’t i say YOUS ARE NOT WELCOME HERE! GET OUT!’”
Barrett went on to say that the young campers “ran out crying asking why they couldn’t buy something.”
“THE CONSTRAINT I had to exhibit in front of them leaves a horrible taste in my mouth,” Barrett wrote. “I had to explain to 40 girls that they are still valuable and they’re green dollars still spends even if racist folks try to hurt them! She won. TODAY! But FYI our black dollars aren’t welcome in the Jenkinson’s Aquarium Gift Shop! Owner ‘Linda’ said so!”
Barrett’s post, which has since gone viral, was accompanied by a video of the gift shop worker being questioned before the campers.
“She doesn’t want the child to shop in her store because she said they have to be with a chaperone, they go get the chaperone and then she excuses all of our girls to leave the store because she doesn’t want them there,” Barrett can be heard saying in the footage.
The worker then lets out a laugh, the video shows, and Barrett asks the employee her reasoning, to which she responds: “Because they didn’t have a chaperone.”
Then Barrett asks the employee what was her reasoning for not letting the girls shop after they did get a chaperone.
“I didn’t think she was a chaperone,” the woman said on camera. “I said, ‘You’re not welcome here.’”
The 25-second clip has been viewed on Facebook more than 2.5 million times.
In a follow-up post, Barrett shared a photo of her campers smiling after the incident.
“The racist lady DID NOT WIN! My princesses left with poise and a lesson on their money is good money and shouldn’t be spent everywhere,” Barrett wrote. “Several cried on the bus on the way home. But ‘Linda D’ you didn’t break us! You didn’t win! These Proud Princesses of color were not moved by your banter!”
Jenkinson’s Aquarium did not immediately return a request for comment by The Post, but a spokesperson told NBC New York that the employee who asked the girls to leave has been suspended pending an investigation.
“We strive to provide all of our customers with an enjoyable experience and we clearly missed the mark this time,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the news outlet. “We sincerely apologize to the girls from the camp group for the way they felt upon leaving.”
