Three black women say they were just shopping at a Tennessee Target last week when they were accosted in an aisle by a white woman who told them they “don’t belong here” and called them “trained liars” when they tried to explain themselves, Yahoo reports.
The women were reportedly discussing the 1992 movie Boomerang when the woman, who’s since earned herself the nickname “Target Teresa,” cornered them in the aisle.
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“My cousin and I were visiting my best friend from out of state and we stopped by Target to buy a phone charger,” one of the women involved, who asked to remain anonymous, told Yahoo. “I told my friend to try on a hat that looked like something Eartha Kitt’s character would wear in the film, and she said no because her character had sex with a younger man.”
Target Teresa apparently overheard the word “sex” and somehow figured that was an appropriate reason to start harassing a handful of total strangers. “You were talking about sex in public,” she shouts in video footage from a since-deleted Facebook post. “Are you having sex in public? Because that’s what you screamed out loud.”
“I understand you’re abusive and you make up lies on the spot,” Target Teresa says in the footage. “I know you’re trained liars… You’re perfect for the court system because you’re trained liars.”
Eventually, Target employees intervened and tried to diffuse things, reportedly remaining calm and hearing the two parties out, but Target Teresa was apparently still complaining to the workers after the women left the store.
The incident feels like yet another in a seemingly endless string of stories about white people getting pissed off or calling the cops on people of color for doing absolutely nothing. Guess it’s time to go ahead and welcome Target Teresa to her spot alongside BBQ Becky, Permit Patty, ID Adam, and that woman who called 911 on a guy for “babysitting while black.”
“I live in the South and have never experienced something like this,” the unnamed woman told Yahoo. “You never think it could happen to you. We’re educated women—we are not aggressive people and we avoid conflict.”
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