A Woman Noticed That All The "Ethnic" Hair Products At WalMart Were Locked Up, While The "Caucasian" Hair Products Were Not, Leading To A Hilarious Twitter Race Debate

Business Insider- On Friday news broke that the store is being sued by a customer who claims that it is segregating products by the race of the people who use them.

The plaintiff, Essie Grundy, was shopping for a comb in her local store when she found it was locked in a cabinet: “That’s when I noticed that all of the African-American products were locked up under lock and key,” Grundy told reporters at a news conference on Friday.

Walmart immediately stamped out these allegations.

“Some products such as electronics, automotive, cosmetics and other personal care products are subject to additional security. Those determinations are made on a store-by-store basis using data supporting the need for the heightened measures,” the spokesperson said. 

Racism isn’t funny, but this story is. We’re talking about shampoo here. Racially profiling… shampoo. I’m only kind of a lawyer (I went to law school for 4 days, too confusing) but I suspect it will be extremely difficult for Essie Grundy to win this case. First of all, she’s going against WalMart. If you’re not familiar with WalMart, they’re a big deal. Their legal team is filled with people who attended law school for all of it. More importantly, it’s going to be super difficult to prove that those shampoos and conditioners were meant exclusively for black people, and that the unlocked ‘poos and ‘dishers are meant for white people. There has to be crossover! It’s 2018! People of all races, creeds, backgrounds, sexual orientations, and pronoun preferences use Head and Shoulders 2-in-1. Right? That shit is more universal than Bruno Mars.

To get a better sense, I reached out to my black friend Willie Colon. He’s a tremendous resource for me when it comes to learning about black people.

Sadly, Willie was in a mischievous mood and decided to “play” with me. God’s Milk does not appear to be a real product. I don’t know for sure, because I used regular Google (I do not know if there is such a thing as black Google, nor do I imagine that I would have access to it).

Let’s take a look at how the WalMart conversation played out on Twitter:

Lots of people on the thread offer examples of other products that are locked up, but which don’t have a particular consumer demographic. I can see both sides of this argument, because I’m a rational person. If WalMart is putting locks on the products that are stolen most frequently, that’s a smart business strategy. But if those products are widely understood to be “black” hair products, I can understand why black people would be pissed.

Now, if this had happened in the sunscreen aisle? Forget about it. I would be fucking furious if all the SPF 10 and weaker was out in the open while the SPF 50 and above was locked away. It’s already embarrassing enough that I use ceiling caulk to protect myself at the beach; please don’t make me call an employee over to unlock my ‘screen.