A Walmart store is under fire from the Black community in Rhode Island after a customer posted a picture of a Black employee sitting inside a storage rack that many assumed was a makeshift jail to promote a fundraiser.
Angela Boateng told the Providence Journal that she spotted the display on June 21 and was “mortified.” She went to the Walmart on Silver Spring Street in Providence to make a return, and she spotted a Black employee inside the storage rack near the front of the store with signs outside of the storage rack.
One of the signs read, “I’m in jail!!! I need bail!!! Help me raise $50 to get out!!” The display was to help fundraise money for the Hasbro Children’s Miracle Network.
Boateng took a picture of the display that was later shared on social media by Angela Ankoma, who leads the Rhode Island Foundation’s Equity Leadership Initiative.
“As I was exiting that Walmart on Silver Spring, I noticed this cage, and I felt like I saw somebody and I went closer … and I’m like, is there a young male in the cage? I just did not understand what was happening, but I was mortified,” Boateng recalled in an interview with The Providence Journal on June 22. “And as I went closer to read what was on the cage, I don’t know really what came over me. I was just deeply offended.”
Boateng added that she attempted to complain to a Walmart employee but was unsuccessful. The identity of the Black employee was not revealed.
“Walmart and Hasbro [Hospital] need to acknowledge their actions,” Boateng said to the Providence Journal. “They need to apologize and let the community know what active steps they’re taking to ensure this doesn’t happen again. And I think that they just need to come public with it.”
Walmart Corp. spokesman Joe Pennington said the location participated in an annual Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals fundraiser and the store associates were encouraged to be creative.
“The ‘jail’ fundraiser goes against company policy and should never be used,” Pennington said in a statement. “We are reinforcing this with our stores in the area, and this display has been removed from our Providence location.”
Sarah Lyons, a spokeswoman for Lifespan Health System, said the company didn’t know about the fundraiser. Hasbro Children’s Hospital is part of Lifespan Health System.
“As a partner of the Children’s Miracle Network, Walmart has been a great supporter and partner of Hasbro Children’s Hospital and we are very appreciative,” Lyons said. “We were not aware of this particular fundraiser held as part of the Children’s Miracle Network campaign and have spoken with both the Children’s Miracle Network and the local store about fundraising alternatives moving forward.”
The picture was widely shared on social media and caught the attention of civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
Crump shared the photo on Twitter with the caption, “Putting a Black employee in a cage should NOT have been the solution to raise funds. Why did no one at Walmart realize this before this offensive and humiliating event happened?”
The Providence Branch of the NAACP and Black Lives Matter Rhode Island Political Action Committee also called out the Walmart store and demanded an apology.
“Images of Black people in cages represents a long, dark history in this country,” said NAACP branch President Gerard Catala in an emailed statement to the Providence Journal. “From literature, arts and everyday entertainment such as King Kong in the 1940’s. Walmart should apologize and recognize that this is insulting and hurtful to Blacks, which is a large sector of their customer base at that particular Walmart.”
