Office Depot 'Karen' compares shopping maskless to hijab discrimination, threatens to call cops on employees
A TikTok video featuring a maskless woman inside Office Depot has gone viral. The woman who is now being termed a 'Karen' was arguing with two employees, one of whom filmed this video, about her rights to shop maskless at the establishment.
The employees repeatedly held up a paper that had the company policies written on it including the one about prohibiting maskless shopping. However, the customer continued arguing and even cried discrimination saying that being refused to shop without a mask on was similar to a hijabi being asked to shop without religious garb.
The video was posted by the Office Depot employee on TikTok where she goes by the username @zooba2001 on Thursday, April 30. The video had amassed close to 70,000 views by Thursday evening, according to a Daily Dot article. The account remains accessible, however, the said video has been made private by the TikToker but you can watch it here.
She had posted the video with the caption, “Karen Alert I’m so pissed that she had the AUDACITY to compare my hijab to her ‘right’ not to wear a mask,” the caption of the video says. Two videos from the interaction between her and another colleague with the maskless customer were posted to her account. In both the videos, the woman argued it was her right to shop without a mask and that she would call the sheriff if she was forced to wear one or if the establishment declined her the right to make a purchase.
“So if I had a religious and medical reason for not wearing a mask, it would be like if she couldn’t shop in the store without taking off her hijab,” the woman said in the video, mispronouncing the word as “hajeeb” while gesturing to the employee, a hijabi, who filmed and shared the video on her account. The customer was firmly explained, “Ma’am, no, it is our company policy that you have to have your mask on in the store."
The customer continued to argue about her "rights." Shaking her head at the employees, she said, “It doesn’t matter. Your policy is below the law, it’s below the Constitution, it’s below my rights.” The employee filming this interaction chimed in reminding the obstinate customer to abide by the company policies if she really needed to make a purchase. “This is a private company so we have our rules,” she said.
The customer continued to rant about how she deserved fair and equal treatment because of religious and medical exemptions to wearing a mask. “And you are doing a public accommodation, so by those terms as a public accommodation, you have to treat me the same,” she said. “Would you deny someone that was coming in with a wheelchair? No, I have to have the same rights as a wheelchair person or a religious person," she added as she gestured to the hijabi employee.
After being told that they were just trying to protect her and the other customers through their mask policies, the customer walked to the checkout line. After her request was denied, she threatened to call the sheriff and once again started to talk about how her rights were being compromised. “Otherwise, I am going to get the sheriff on the line. I am not joking,” the customer said and later held up a piece of paper saying, "You can come and look at this and see what I have."
"This is my civil rights, the same as her civil rights, the same as a person who would come in here in a wheelchair. I have a medical exemption and a religious exemption," she said. Several commenters asked the TikToker if the customer was checked out. “Nope we refused to check her out,” @zooba2001 responded on TikTok.