Black woman sues Bebe Stores for bias

[CShine]

An African American woman has sued clothier Bebe Stores for race discrimination, saying that when she tried to return an unused skirt and blouse, the San Francisco store manager accused her of lying because "you people always do this.''

In a U.S. District Court suit, filed Monday, Samantha Allen-Wise, a legal secretary from Oakland, said she was subjected to demeaning and humiliating treatment at the Grant Avenue store last June, including the manager's false allegation to police that Allen-Wise had struck her.

"Retail discrimination is a very widespread problem that no one talks about because minorities are most often the victims,'' said Michael Harris of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, one of Allen-Wise's attorneys. Her suit seeks unspecified damages, including punitive damages, against the company and the store manager.

Bebe's Brisbane headquarters referred an inquiry Tuesday to its general counsel, Craig Walsey, who said the company does not comment on lawsuits. Allen-Wise said in her suit that Walsey told her in July he had investigated her complaint and found no discrimination, but she said he acknowledged that he had not spoken to witnesses, reviewed a police report, or looked at a videotape of the incident.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/06/09/BAG3M72UM01.DTL

[Demobrat]

1. Good for her. I hope she wins.

That sales person needs to join the unemployment line.

[Tight_rope]

2. Take them for all they have sistah!

Bastard will never learn until it hits them where it hurts (in the pockets). Gettem gurl!:toast:

[ursacorwin]

4. i remember reading something

about this in a local paper, when i (head hanging in shame) worked in a mall for a summer.

bebe never seems to have any black salespeople either- just skinny little x-heads and model wannabes. i went to a talk at the University of Chicago Law school by a woman who is representing a group suing Ab&Finch over a similar problem- they don't hire anyone to work the floor who isn't white.

it's common corporate policy, she said, they've just learned to hide with patheticly transparent and ineffective corporate 'sensitivity training' sessions and the occasional dime to the NAACP and the like.

[flamingyouth]

3. I hope she wins too!!!

And frankly, their clothes are way too damn small for normal women.