A young Indigenous woman has revealed how she considered taking her own life after being accused of shoplifting.
Alinta, the daughter of Chloe Quayle, a popular rapper, said she was stopped by a security guard while shopping at a Chemist Warehouse store in Sydney.
“I wanted to buy makeup and hair products, as I’m sure many other teenage girls would do, but at the end of my shopping day, a security guard told my mother to look for the receipt for the things we had bought at the counter.” she said.
‘We complied… until a white shopper was able to leave the store without problems. That’s when my mother immediately pointed this out and asked the security guard if she was also going to ask the other shoppers for a receipt.
Alinta, the daughter of Chloe Quayle, a popular rapper, said she was stopped by a security guard while shopping at a Chemist Warehouse store in Sydney.
He said the security guard began threatening to get the police involved simply because his mother was recording him.
‘My mother stopped recording and he proceeded to accuse me of theft. This made me the center of attention and all eyes were on me,” he continued.
“They just painted me as a criminal. My life began to fall apart in those moments while I hyperventilated,” he explained.
She explained that if her mother had not intervened to defend her, she would have allowed the security guard to search her in the store.
The young woman broke down while detailing the alleged racial profiling at Chemist Warehouse.
“Desperate to prove my innocence, I dropped my bag and jacket to the floor while sobbing,” she said.
‘The sad thing about this is that I really believed I had done something wrong. I thought maybe I had a gap in my memory or I stole something by accident.
‘My dignity and self-esteem were taken from me in a second and for the rest of the night I cried and sobbed.
“I even thought about taking my own life because how could I stand to live in a world that hated me?”
Alinta said it had been her own decision to share her story to raise awareness.
‘This has happened to my mother, my grandmother and probably the entire family tree since colonization. Nothing has changed,’ she stated.
His mother has demanded Chemist Warehouse fire the security guard allegedly responsible for the incident.
Ms Quayle was seen crying and comforting her daughter throughout the video.
Demanded Chemist Warehouse Fire Security Guard Allegedly Responsible
“The irony of all this is that my daughter also plays soccer for a team whose main sponsor is Chemist Warehouse,” he wrote on Facebook.
“Not only did they attack an innocent Blak girl and demonize her in the store, but they also attacked one of their players.”
She said Chemist Warehouse had contacted her about the incident and had passed on her solicitor’s details.
‘I’m so sick and tired of our babies having to beg and plead for their innocence, so sick and tired of us having to protect our babies from this before they have a chance to fully understand how racist this country can be.’
“I’m sick and tired of black children not being seen the same as us non-indigenous children, all because of stereotypes and harsh racism.”
In a statement, Chemist Warehouse said it was aware of an incident that occurred at one of the chain’s stores in New South Wales.
“Under no circumstances do we tolerate mistreatment of our clients,” he said.
‘We want to reassure you that the safety and wellbeing of our customers and staff are our top priority and we understand the distress this incident may have caused to everyone involved.
“We are discussing further measures with the security contractor concerned.”