Employee's Blackface Halloween Costume 'Shocks' Customers At Staples

An incident of a Staples employee's alleged Sharpie costume left customers shocked and offended Friday.

Harrold Leffall visited a Staples store in Pleasant Hill, California to find an employee in a Halloween costume which featured blackface makeup. After raising his concern with another store employee, Leffall's offense was dismissed.

"(I told the other employee that) 'as a black man, I am very offended and I think that (costume is) very inappropriate,'" Leffall said in a WZVN-TV interview Monday. "She said it was a sharpie costume, and I said 'sharpie or no sharpie as a black man to see a white person in blackface is very offensive.'"

Frustrated, Leffall left the store but later returned to speak to a store authority. Upon his return, Leffall met with the manager and was told the store was made aware of the issue and it was being handled.

Leffall continued to show his concern through social media, posting on Facebook Friday.

"I walk into Staples in Pleasant Hill, CA and was greeted by one of the employees, who I assume was dressed for Halloween, in blackface," Leffall wrote in his Facebook post. "My immediate thought is this cannot be real ... What made the staff think that this was okay?"

New video later surfaced by WZVN-TV Monday showed another customer, Geneen Bland, confronting the Staples employee on her offensive costume. This employee explained how she was a "beauty shop customer" and the black paint was a "charcoal mask."

Bland captured the woman on video and raised her concern to the general manager to no avail.

Staples later released a statement confronting the issue, and said the employee was a "HP representative" and "didn't realize it could be considered offensive to some of our customers."

"Staples apologizes to any customers that may have viewed a photo of the associate on social media. We respect diversity and try to foster a sense of diversity and inclusion in our stores, as well as provide an atmosphere in which all customers feel comfortable," said a Staples representative in a statement.