The Old Navy store in Center City is accused of pushing workers of color into the background and putting white employees front and center during filming for the show “Queer Eye.”
Employee Monae Alvarado shared her concerns on Facebook earlier this week, and the post has received a lot of traction.
The post reads, “So they were filming Queer eye (not queer as folk) at my job (Old Navy in Center City Philadelphia) and at my job is nothing but people of color. Most of us did an overnight to help make the store look beautiful. Today they brought all these workers from other store around the region (West Chester, Mount Pocono, and Deptford NJ) and they were all white. They had us standing in the back not to be seen while the other workers from another store get to work on our floor like it’s their store. The shade I tell you.”
Alvarado spoke with NBC and told them that 10 white workers from other locations were brought in for the filming day to work on the sales floor. She also shared on social media, that she was “shooed away” when trying to be on the floor during filming.
Two other Old Navy employees spoke to Philadelphia Magazine and backed her allegations.
Old Navy is denying the claims, saying in a statement, “At Old Navy, we celebrate the diversity of our teams and our customers and foster an environment of inclusion and belonging,”
Additionally, they added, “We were proud to work with The Queer Eye show to film at our store in Philadelphia and to feature our local store manager on camera. We also worked with additional employees in the area to help ensure the store ran seamlessly for customers, as the location was open for business during filming, and we expect they may appear in background shots. These individuals are reflective of our diverse employee population. We would never select employees to participate – or not – based on race. That is completely inaccurate and against the values we stand for as a company.”
Netflix also released a statement about the allegations stating that, “Queer Eye’s hosts, producers, and crew had no knowledge or influence on Old Navy staffing choices while filming in a Philadelphia-based store this past week.”
Additionally, they stated, “While filming, production featured one female employee, an African American manager, who completed an on-camera styling consultation and also served as a point of contact for our crew.”
