The talented Zendaya, as seen on the cover of Complex,took to Snapchat to complain about a supermarket employee who refused to help Zendaya and her friend.
The 20-year-old went to Vons in Los Angeles hoping to buy $400 worth of gift cards. Zendaya recalls the store clerk "not trying to help us at all, saying, that we couldn’t buy the gift cards and then throwing my wallet."
In the series of snaps, Zendaya acknowledged that sometimes there are issues with buying gift cards: "There’s some certain limits and some things, which is understandable, ok cool, I’ll take a less amount, whatever."
But that wasn't the issue, Zendaya claims.
According to Zendaya, the troubles began because the store clerk was "not a huge fan of our skin tone, not at all." Her friend in the videos added in agreement, "because we're black."
Zendaya continued: "Can’t make this shit up. This is what we deal with. She was like, 'You can’t afford this' is how she looked at me." When the clerk "tossed" back her wallet, Zendaya says, "My cards were loose so my card fell on the scanner and she was about to keep scanning the next person."
Eventually a manager intervened and Zendaya was able to get her gift cards.
Still, Zendaya pointed out, there's "so much progress to be done" with regards to combating racism.
With that said, she didn't hold a grudge against the clerk, saying, "You know what? It's all love. Maybe she'll go on to have a wonderful life."
Unfortunately, Zendaya is no stranger to racism. In 2015, when Zendaya wore dreadlocks on the Oscars red carpet, Giuliana Rancic of E! said that she must smell like "patchouli" and "weed." Earlier this summer, Zendaya told Cosmopolitan that she fired her publicist after she made racially insensitive remarks to her.
