LAWRENCE >> Nothing could make up for how a Trenton woman was treated by an Estee Lauder employee.
Just in time for the voracious Black Friday shop-a-thon, a Trenton woman is suing a New York-based cosmetic giant for racist quips one of its employees allegedly made when she visited a New Jersey store two years ago.
The company’s motto is “Bringing the best to everyone we touch,” but Hadidiatou Cisse, a successful business owner who came to Trenton from Senegel in West Africa, said she experienced one of the worst dressing-downs of her life at the Quaker Bridge Mall in November 2015.
She was with her then-7-year-old son, Diop, at the Macy’s department store shopping for Estee Lauder products as a gift for a cousin. She approached the counter of the store and was greeted by an employee named Paul, according to a lawsuit filed this month. His last name was not included in the lawsuit because Cisse did not know it.
Paul was “immediately rude” to Cisse, snatching a lip liner from her hand for no apparent reason. Upset with the way she was treated, Cisse went to help from a different sales associate.
That’s when Paul, apparently enraged that Cisse didn’t want to do business with him, launched into a full-out verbal assault on Cisse, using racial slurs to put down the shopper.
He called her an “ugly African b-ch” and told her he was going to “slap the black off” of her, according to the lawsuit.
While Cisse’s cousin was being helped by another sales associate, Paul paced back and forth like a lion, shouting “nasty b-ch,” “nasty African b-ch” and “b-ch n-er” at Cisse.
Diop heard what the enraged makeup worker told his mom. Defending her, he yelled back that his mom “is not a b-ch.” The young boy was so upset about how Paul treated his mother he wanted to fight him.
Cisse had to calm her son down. Ignoring the “bizarre and discriminatory” treatment, she still bought the Estee Lauder products and left the store. She and her family walked through the rest of the mall.
But they parked outside in the Macy’s parking lot and had to walk back through the store at the end of the day to get to their car.
Paul was still working at closing time. As Cisse walked back through the store, he spotted her and picked up where he left off.
In front of a dozen other employees, he called her a “crazy woman” and accused Cisse of stealing from the store.
“Look at her,” he said, according to the lawsuit. “She is a mad woman. She is angry because she got caught stealing.”
Diop, once again protecting his mother, shouted back: “My mom never stole anything.”
Outraged over being falsely accused, Cisse called the Lawrence cops. When they arrived at the mall, she asked them to review the Macy’s surveillance tapes to prove she hadn’t taken anything from the store.
The responding officers, along with members of the store’s loss prevention team, reviewed the tapes and confirmed Cisse hadn’t stolen anything.
Now Cisse is suing for discrimination.
“The demeaning conduct of the Estee Lauder defendants’ employees and representatives created an abusive and hostile environment for plaintiffs because of their race and national origin,” the lawsuit said.
Cisse, who says she’s suffered emotional distress from Paul’s bigoted outbursts, has asked a jury to award her damages and attorney fees.
A corporate spokesperson from the cosmetic company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Quaker Bridge Mall manager also did not respond to a message left on her phone.
