A Windsor man feels humiliated after experiencing what he calls 'discrimination' based on his appearance, by staff at the Sunglass Hut in Devonshire Mall.
Adriano Clarke said staff at Sunglass Hut would not allow him to enter the store shortly after it opened on Friday, May 25 to fix sunglasses he purchased from the chain.
"The person there told me that I couldn't come in because they caught me on camera shoplifting. I thought it was a joke," said Clarke, who said he had his glasses fixed at the location earlier this month without incident.
Clarke denies ever having stolen something from the store and said staff refused to show him the video so he could prove he was innocent.
"I believe this incident would have been prevented if I was not a visible minority," said Clarke, who said staff told him he was lucky he was not being charged for shoplifting.
"It is a situation that is too familiar with black males."
Allegations of discrimination
Sunglass Hut at Devonshire Mall refused to comment. Devonshire Mall did not respond to requests for a comment.
Clarke said he believes he was unfairly treated like a criminal.
They didn't do a good job of training this person to make sure that if this kind of a situation would happen they would be very careful on how they would deal with this,- Adriano Clarke
"It just made me feel like the only reason this happened is because of the way I look and they are looking at me as if I'm a criminal and there's nothing I can say or do," said Clarke.
He said he has contacted legal counsel and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
No access to the tape
Sunglass Hut has not reached out to him since the incident, said Clarke, who said he was never given a chance to prove his innocence.
"I'm standing in the mall with security guards being told that I'm shoplifting, can I please leave and people start looking at me," he said.
"They just kept repeating - we have you on camera, just let it go. You're lucky we're not charging you," said Clarke.
He said that both Devonshire Mall security and Sunglass Hut staff told them they had not seen the video.
"Why are you so certain that it's me on camera but you yourself have not seen the footage?" he remembers asking them.
'Extremely humiliated'
"What Sunglass Hut made me feel was extremely humiliated," said Clarke, who had to hold back tears later that day because of the emotional stress the interaction caused.
"That feeling of being that stereotype, being that stigma... I felt like this wouldn't happen to me unless I didn't look this way."
Clarke said that he wants the company to review the footage and clear his name.
"I want them to rectify the situation. I want them to look at the footage and see that they're wrong."
He said that the company needs to train their staff better when it comes to handling these kinds of accusations.
"They didn't do a good job of training this person to make sure that if this kind of a situation would happen they would be very careful on how they would deal with this," said Clarke.
"It's a very serious thing to charge someone of."