Barkaa, Members Of Camp Cope Slam Chemist Warehouse For Alleged Racism

Barkaa and Camp Cope’s Kelly-Dawn Helmrich and Sarah “Thomo” Thompson have slammed Chemist Warehouse after Barkaa’s 14-year-old daughter was subjected to alleged racism.

Taking to social media yesterday (10 April), Barkaa wrote that she and her daughter visited a Chemist Warehouse store in Parramatta at 6:40 pm shopping for beauty and hair products. As they were leaving, they were stopped by a security guard who asked to see their receipt.

Barkaa returned to the counter and asked for a printed receipt. While watching other shoppers leave the store, she asked the guard, “Are you going to ask them for a receipt?”

She wrote that the security guard then pointed to her daughter, accused her of stealing, asked Barkaa to stop recording and threatened to call the police. Barkaa claimed that another white employee approached them and asked the security guard, “Do you want to deal with this in the shop or outside? We are going to call the police”.

The King Brown rapper and musician continued by repeating her response: “I am recording because this is purely racism, you’re in the wrong and you’ve made my baby cry”. She alleged that the security guard told her daughter, “If you stole something, just give it back.” Barkaa’s daughter was understandably distressed and “didn’t understand what was happening”.

As Barkaa and her daughter were leaving, she wrote that the security guard “put his hands on me when I tried to walk out”, so she told him: “You have no right to touch me; what you’re doing right now is illegal and told him I’ll be posting his photo on my social media”.

Barkaa ended her post by writing that she wants Chemist Warehouse to fire the security guard “and embed a Reconciliation plan across their stores for their employees, which most of them are P.O.C.” She will make a formal complaint against the store, writing: “Enough is enough, my babies don’t have to go through this.”

Purple Sneakers has reached out to Chemist Warehouse for comment.

Barkaa received support from the music industry, with Camp Cope’s Thomo responding in the comments, “let us know what you’re doing about this Chemist Warehouse”. Kelly from Camp Cope also called Chemist Warehouse “disgusting” in her Instagram Stories and wrote in Barkaa’s comment section, “shame shame shame - all my love to your baby, sis”.

Kira Piru, GLVES, Nooky, Wentworth’s Shareena Clanton, Brooke Boney, and many more also showed support.

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