Zendaya on Her Racial Profiling Claim, and Why She Chose to Speak Up

Zendaya is not shy about saying how she feels. The Disney star-turned-"Project Runway" judge talked to “Extra's” Renee Bargh in New York today, where she explained why she took to social media to document an incident in which she felt she was racially profiled.

Zendaya, whose father is African-American and whose mother is white, took to Snapchat Tuesday after walking out of a Von's supermarket in California, saying that she was trying to purchase a large amount of gift cards and she didn't think the clerk “was a huge fan of our skin tone." Eventually, thanks to a manager, Zendaya says she was able to make her purchase but she was still bothered.

She told Renee, “It's not something that I'm new to, it's something that happens every day and it's something that a lot of people of color deal with, so really I think the most important thing was to document the experience and tell them, 'If it's something that if it's happening to me, it's definitely happening to other people out there.'” She added, “You can't be afraid to talk about something; it's having dialogue, it's having open conversation, even if it makes people uncomfortable.”