Tim Cook: Barring of Black Teens From Apple Store 'Unacceptable'

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.”

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.

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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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