A retail worker has died after being told they shouldn’t racially profile Indigenous shoppers.
“We received a lot of negative messages on social media from Indigenous shoppers who said they felt unwelcome because they are followed around the store,” said Bianca Pura, owner of Bertsons Store where the incident took place.
“I told my staff to maybe not do that and then Wyatt, who just started a few weeks ago, let out an agonized scream and just died.”
It’s the 45th such racial-profiling-related death to strike workers in the past three months, according to the Retail Workers Association of Manitoba.
“You have to understand, brown skin is like a powerful magnet to a retail worker’s eyeballs and when you take that away, we literally die,” said Lily LeBlanc, the organization’s lead spokesperson.
“This tragedy could have been avoided if Indigenous shoppers would just accept retail workers following them around like hungry seagulls.”