Mohamed Semra

I've always not advocated for myself.

I said, why are we being asked to leave when we belong in there just like anyone else?

And so I decide to return and straight away the manager comes out.

We are at this point recording because we know this for what it is.

It's pure racism.

And the manager goes, you know, we're just afraid you might steal something.

And not giving us a response, not even trying to entertain a conversation.

And yeah, we left and uploaded it online the next day and the rest was history.

Like it went mega viral.

And for a whole week, we were interviewed by major networks, Channel 9, Channel 7, BBC, the New York Times.

So I went from, you know, having a starter, never advocating for myself to now being put on a national platform, advocating for everyone online.

And on any person of color that's experienced racism, yeah, it was a surreal experience.

And it reached all the way up to its CEO, Apple Tim Cook, and he ordered all Apple Store employees around the world to refresh and retrain on customer inclusion, inclusive practice.

It made us feel like the work that we'd done meant something.

And being able to change Apple, you know, forever at such a young age gave us the confidence to want to be a part of advocacy.

And I think it kickstarted our advocacy journey.

But I told myself, like, I never visit the Apple store.

So what does this mean for me?

What does this mean for my community?

It doesn't really mean much, does it?