Apple CEO Tim Cook has responded to a controversial incident earlier this week in an Australian Apple store in which six black teenagers were prevented from entering out of fear they might steal something. In a company-wide email, first obtained by BuzzFeed today, Cook said the incident “does not represent our values” and it is “not a message we would ever want to deliver to a customer or hear ourselves.”
Tim Cook: Barring of Black Teens From Apple Store ‘Unacceptable’
Incident in Australia “does not represent our values,” Cook tells company employees.
The Verge
The encounter took place in at the Highpoint Shopping Centre in Melbourne, Australia, and the six boys — from Somalia and Sudan — were from nearby Maribyrnong College. After security eyed them approaching the store, an Apple representative curtly told the boys to leave immediately because “they’re [security] just worried you might steal something.” A video of the exchange filmed on a smartphone was posted to Facebook on Tuesday, whereupon it went viral.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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