Louisville mall plans to ban woman after bigoted rant; store offers to reimburse customers | Lexington Herald Leader

Jefferson Mall in Louisville plans to ban a woman who was caught in a viral video shouting bigoted remarks at fellow customers, and JCPenney wants to find the two targeted women and reimburse them for their purchases.

The video shows a white woman shouting at a Hispanic woman in line at a JCPenney store. Renee Buckner, who posted the video of the rant Tuesday night on Facebook, wrote that the white woman “went off” when the Hispanic woman walked up to add items to her friend’s purchase, which was being scanned by a cashier.

Buckner’s Facebook post was later removed, but the video remained on YouTube.

The video starts with the woman telling her to go to the back of the line. She then says the Hispanic woman should “just back to wherever the (expletive) you come from, lady.”

The man working the cash register tells the woman to watch her language, and she responds, “Hey, tell them to go back where they belong.”

The one minute, 21 second video shows the woman continuing to yell at the pair checking out, saying if they “come here to live, they should act like everybody else.”

She also says the women are “nobody, as far as I’m concerned.”

“You’re probably on welfare,” she said at one point. “We probably — the taxpayers probably paid for all that stuff.”

One of the woman being yelled at told the woman, “I said sorry.” The ranting woman responded by telling them to speak English.

“You’re in America,” she shouted. “If you don’t know it, learn it.”

In the text posted with the video, Buckner wrote that people in line tried to tell the yelling woman she was “out of order, but she wasn’t hearing that.”

Jefferson Mall officials posted on Facebook later Tuesday night that they were working with JCPenney to identify the woman, and that once she was identified she would be permanently banned from the mall.

“Jefferson Mall strives to create a comfortable and convenient experience for all of our guests and we absolutely do not condone this type of behavior,” according to the mall’s post.

JCPenney asked for the public’s help Wednesday in identifying the customers the woman targeted. “We would like to reimburse them for their entire purchase and offer a sincere apology for their experience.” (The company’s Facebook page is Facebook.com/jcp. Email can be sent to jcpnews-sm@jcp.com.)

“We are deeply disturbed by the incident that took place at our Jefferson Mall store. ... We regret that innocent bystanders — both other customers and a JCPenney associate — were subjected to such discriminatory remarks,” JCPenney officials said in a statement.

The video also prompted a series of tweets Wednesday morning from Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, who said: “I am sad and disappointed to see conduct like what happened at Jefferson Mall, when one person so dehumanizes another human being. This is not who we are, and on behalf of our community, I apologize to the two women who were treated in such a horrible way. I hope this video prompts many discussions among families as they gather for the holidays this week.”