Gabourey Sidibe: ‘Chanel & Dior discriminated against me because I’m fat’

Empire star Gabourey Sidibe says her race and her weight may have caused racist sales reps to discriminate against her in high end boutiques.

The 34-year-old actress, who gained overnight fame in Lee Daniels’ filmPrecious, says a saleswoman in a Chanel store in Chicago shooed her away from a counter while she shopped for shades.

“She greeted me, but the look on her face told me that she thought I was lost,” she wrote in an essay for Lena Dunham’s Lenny Letter. “I had been at her display for less than a minute, and she was literally directing me to another store.”

Gabourey wrote that the woman’s attitude changed when other sales reps in the store recognized her.

“All of a sudden, the woman who had pointed me out of the store let me know that even though they didn’t have eyeglasses, the shades they carried actually doubled as eyeglass frames, so I should take a look at the shades I’d come to look at in the first place. Just like that, I went from being an inconvenience to a customer.”

She ended up purchasing 2 Chanel sandals (one for her co-star Taraji P. Henson) and 2 pairs of sunglasses.

A similar incident occurred at a Dior counter in New York, where a salesperson “literally took a [lip] gloss out of my hand”.

Gabourey feared that her weight may have played a role in the mistreatment she received at Chanel and Dior.

“I suspect it’s because I’m black, but it could also be because I’m fat. Maybe my whole life, every time I thought someone was being racist, they were actually mistreating me because I’m fat. That sucks too. That’s not O.K.,” she wrote.

A Chanel spokesperson has since issued an apology to the actress.