A racially charged confrontation inside a JCPenney store has gone viral after a white woman falsely accused a Black man of being connected to an apparent jewelry theft, and then doubled down by aggressively confronting his family when they pushed back.
The video, posted on Monday to Instagram, shows the moments after the white woman, dressed in a red shirt, pointed at a Black man who had just entered the store with his family and said he looked like the suspect loss prevention officers were chasing moments earlier.
The man’s mother-in-law and other relatives had just walked in when the woman launched the accusation, prompting one of the Black women to demand answers.
“So you said you saw a Black guy run that way?” she asked the woman. The woman nodded and said, “Yes, just about like him,” claiming the alleged thief was wearing shorts and looked like the Black man in their group, specifically pointing to her son-in-law.
The Black woman, who was wearing glasses that record video, took offense and then put the white woman on the spot: “Because he’s a Black guy?”
Despite having just watched the group enter the store together, the white woman seemed unwilling to back down. But as the Black woman challenged her bias, the white woman abruptly turned defensive and accused her of “starting trouble” before storming off.
“No, you’re starting trouble!” the Black woman shouted back, her voice cutting through the store. “Don’t accuse my son-in-law of being a thief!”
The shouting match took a turn when the white woman suddenly reversed course and marched back toward the Black woman, bumping into her in front of a jewelry display. The two women clashed physically—jostling, elbowing, and chesting up on each other—before employees rushed over to keep them apart.
Tensions flared as the two women yelled at each other, and with their voices rising, the situation was on the brink of igniting a brawl. Middle-aged staffers stepped in to de-escalate the fracas, while the white woman, now backpedaling, claimed she hadn’t accused anyone of anything—an act of gaslighting that only inflamed the situation further.
As the white woman retreated into the distance, both women kept hurling barbs in a bid to have the last word. But then the Black woman cut through the noise with the line that would define the ordeal.
“I’m not my ancestors, but I’ll show you!” she yelled across the store—a pointed reminder of the enslaved forebears who resisted their oppressors, and a warning that she wouldn’t be silent.
She later posted a detailed account of what took place, accusing the white woman of racial profiling and physical assault.
“Today I was assaulted in @jcpenney by a Karen!” she wrote, while tagging the store in the post. “After she accused my son-in-law of being a thief. As we walked in, loss prevention was chasing a jewelry thief out the store. This lady instantly accused him of being with him. My son-in-law said she said to him twice ‘I bet you know him’ and he said nothing back, and the third time she said ‘I bet you know him don’t you’ with her finger pointed towards his face, is when my daughter heard her. She then realized, after my daughter looked confused and asked ‘what,’ is when she must’ve realized that my son-in-law was with us. After asking her what did she say and mean by that, she became angry and aggressive and pushed me.”
She claimed that JC Penney staff agreed the woman had assaulted her, but never asked her to leave. Fearing that she would be portrayed as the aggressor, the Black woman said she left the store, but later returned to file a police report. “They already know who she is!” she wrote.
JC Penney responded to the incident on the same post, issuing an apology:
“Thanks so much for reaching out—we’re truly sorry to hear this happened. This isn’t the experience we want our customers to have, and we’re here to help!”
In a polite message, they encouraged the woman to send details privately so the incident could be addressed internally:
“To assist you further, please send us a private message with: Store location, date and time of your visit along with your contact information. We’ll make sure your concerns are shared with the right team. Thanks again for bringing this to our attention—we appreciate you!”
In the comments section, the episode reignited broader conversations about how false accusations are still used by some whites as a way to police and humiliate Black people. Many called out the store employees for telling the Black woman to move on, while staying silent about the white woman’s aggressive behavior. Others argued the staff should have just called the police immediately, though it remained unclear who ultimately made the call.
Great Job A.L. Lee & the Team @ Atlanta Black Star Source link for sharing this story.
