In a viral TikTok video, a Black business owner shared an email she received from a client demanding a refund after she found out the business owner is Black.
“Can you please cancel my order? Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware that you’re a person of color and I just don’t like to support small business[es] that do not [align] with my version of support,” the client wrote in the email.
According to the email, she followed up her request with racist stereotypes.
“Before you start and go on a race tyrant please be aware it [is] called my preference […] Because we are all aware of how you people like to act when things do not go your way,” the client wrote.
“What do you mean by ‘you people’? How do we like to act? How do you expect someone to act when it’s 2022 and you’re still giving this type of energy?” the business owner (user @royaltysonestopshop) questions in the video.
The client, in the email, said the owner should make it clear on her site that she is a Black woman, despite the site having an “About the Owner” page. She also demanded she receive a refund by the next day and ended the email by alluding to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“Also happy holiday isn’t it your people holiday today?” she wrote.
In the TikTok, the business owner expresses her disappointment in the client’s prejudice.
“I’m just disturbed by the fact that you thought this was OK. You could have just asked for a refund. I don’t ask questions on why people want refunds […] This is not OK. We need to do better in 2022,” she says.
The TikToker’s video received over 113,000 views, and several users showed their support for her.
“It’s so hard to believe that people are still this ignorant in 2022. Keep your head up sis! You’re the better person!” one user said.
“I’m at a loss for words!! wish their friends and family and employer could see this and stop them in their tracks!” another said.
Some suggested the owner share the email with the client’s employer. Others urged the TikToker to share the client’s information so they could expose her.
“Give the refund and forward the email to their boss. Bye bye job,” one urged.
“I would figure out their employer and send them a copy of this email to see how they feel about it,” another suggested.
“I would refund them and then expose them. at that point, they are not a client and can’t be defamation of character because it’s true,” a third said.
Others said they wouldn’t issue a refund if they were in the same position.
“Sir/ma’am, seeing as how my race has nothing to do with the quality of my product, i cannot issue a refund,” one user said.
“I definitely would have not given her a refund,” another said.
The business owner said in a comment that she already issued a refund to the client.
The Daily Dot reached out to the business owner via email.
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