JC Penney

On May 7th, the weekend before Mother's day of 2021, exactly a week ago from today. My mother, Aunt and my daughter were shopping at the JC Penney at South Town Mall in Sandy Utah. The sign on the doors said that it encouraged face masks but they were not required. We chose to not wear them and when we entered JC Penney everything was fine. There were several store clerks that I interacted with and they were wearing masks and they didn't say anything to me about not having a mask on.

We proceeded to the Jewelry department and I was talking with a store clerk asking about some jewelry and she was very kind. We then walked to another counter within the jewelry area and a blonde white employee harassed us and yelled at us and said, "put your masks on, if you don't have one I'll give you one but I already told her!" Referring to my mother... no please, no kindness, just yelling right from the beginning. Well, she was a white woman and we are all Hispanic. I didn't notice anybody else being yelled at or told to wear masks, it was just us. So I told her to please be quiet and she wouldn't, she just kept on yelling at us trying to make a scene, so I told her a few more times to be quiet, that nobody was listening to her and for her to please be quiet. I started walking away and she said, "you have a great day!" and I responded with, "yes you have one as well" then my Aunt told me that she told the other clerk the following, "I will have her [censored]ing [censored] kicked out of the store!" So I went back to her and asked her if she said those words and her hands started to shake and she said no, that should never say anything like that and so I said so you are saying my Aunt is a liar? She said no, that she had already told the woman in the yellow shirt that she had to wear a mask. I then responded that she doesn't "tell" anybody and that we weren't wearing masks and that there wasn't anything that she could do about it. She said I will call my manger and I said, go ahead and call your manager. I then turned around and walked away.

I feel this is racist because there were others in the mall not wearing masks and yet she only spoke to me and my family and the only thing I can think of is that it's because of the color of our skin and the fact that we are noticeably Hispanic.