Coretta White Facebook
An Atlanta mother said she was called the n-word when she spoke out about her bad experience purchasing her daughter’s prom dress at a local boutique.
Coretta White wanted to buy her daughter a gown from Miz Scarletts in Atlanta’s upscale Buckhead neighborhood. The dress store’s Google Plus page reveals it is an “expansive 2-story showroom” that sells 50,000 gowns for pageants, weddings, galas and proms.
White left a review one month ago saying the company misplaced her daughter’s dress and that she had waited more than the promised two-week period for alterations.
On May 7, shop owner Susan Smithson reportedly started a heated exchange with White on Facebook. Smithson allegedly accused White of stealing the gown and said she was calling the police. White tells her to do so and days later the Miz Scarletts employee responds harshly.
“I WILL u filthy n—–,” she writes. “MizScarletts is a white owned business for whites only take your uppity n—— a– elsewhere.”
White shared a screenshot of the exchange on the NAACP Atlanta chapter’s Facebook page May 18.
The Atlanta mother shared an update on the story May 19. White said local news station 11Alive visited Smithson, who claimed a former employee was behind the racist account the customer interacted with. She said a male ex-coworker is “trying to destroy her.”
White remains skeptical of those claims and stands by her experience.
“I was not happy and do not recommend anyone purchase from them,” she wrote.
This is not the first time Smithson has had issues with customers. Lynda Parker looked to buy a wedding dress from Miz Scarletts nearly 17 years ago. She sued the boutique owner for alleged breech of contract, fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Parker won the case and was awarded $1,600 in compensatory damages and $10,000 punitive damages. Smithson filed an appeal in January 2000, but the jury affirmed the original verdict, according to Find Law.
