Zendaya Claims She and a Friend Were Denied Service Because an Employee 'Was Not a Huge Fan of Our Skin Tone'

 
Zendaya took to Snapchat on Tuesday to complain about a troubling encounter she claimed she had at a supermarket in Los Angeles.

“So we just got out of this Vons. Now, I’m trying to buy a lot of gift cards,” she told her fans. “Now, there’s some certain, specific things you have to do when it comes to buying gift cards. There’s some certain limits and some things, which is understandable, ok cool, I’ll take a less amount, whatever. But the lady that was helping us, I don’t think she was a huge fan of our skin tone. Not at all.”

MORE: Zendaya Says She Dropped Her Publicist Over Racially Insensitive Comment

According to the Disney alum, the store employee refused to help Zendaya and her friend "because we're black,” her pal said.

“In fact, I recall, her not trying to help us at all, saying, that we couldn’t buy the gift cards and then throwing my wallet,” Zendaya said as her friend agreed. “Can’t make this s**t up. This is what we deal with. She was like, ‘You can’t afford this’ is how she looked at me. It was $400… Like, it wasn’t like a throw, it was like a toss. She tossed it with my card still loose. My cards were loose so my card fell on the scanner and she was about to keep scanning the next person.”

The star ended her rant by noting that there’s still “so much progress to be done” when it comes to racism in the world. She also wished the alleged racist employee well, saying, “You know what, it’s all love. Maybe she’ll go on to have a wonderful life.”

Despite the claims, Zendaya did manage to get her gift cards, giving a shout out to the store’s manager for helping her.

"At Vons we strive to treat each and every customer with the utmost
respect. There is a policy that limits gift card purchases using a
credit card.  Zendaya was able to purchase gift cards up to our limit,
and we apologize for any inconvenience or misunderstanding," the company
said in a statement obtained by ET.

"We respect Zendaya’s voice
in the community and similarly are committed to diversity and
inclusion.  Moreover, we understand that race is a sensitive issue in
America and view this experience as a reminder that every interaction is
an opportunity to treat each customer as we ourselves would like to be
treated."

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This certainly isn’t the first time the star has spoken out about what she has deemed as racial injustices in the world. In a June cover story for Cosmopolitan, the 20-year-old revealed that she fired her publicist after she made some offensive comments.

"I didn't like my hair and makeup one time on a photo shoot, and my publicist told me, 'You should just be happy with it. They haven't had a black girl on the cover since forever,'" she recalled. "She's no longer my publicist."

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