With the holiday season quickly approaching, a certain degree of minor retail related drama is to be expected around this time of year. However, alleged racial profiling incidents on the part of department stores such as Barney’s New York, have sparked controversy and extreme outrage — not really what we expected with “retail related drama.”
Barneys and the NYPD are currently battling over a racial profiling scandal, involving the detainment and accusation of credit card fraud of two African American customers over their expensive purchases. Though the incidents took place at the Barney’s New York Flagship store, Barney’s places full blame of the “shop and frisk” incidents on the NYPD. Barney’s CEO Mark Lee States, “Our preliminary investigation has concluded that in both of these instances, no one from Barneys New York raised any issue with these purchases.”
However, top spokesman from the NYPD, John McCarthy, upholds, “We don’t profile. It’s illegal,” explaining, “(Barneys) notified the police they had suspicion about this purchase and this particular card. The cops get a complaint from the store. That’s what drives this.”
According to the NYPD, there were 11 arrests related to credit card fraud at Barney’s. Of these arrests, eight involved black men, two black women, and one Asian woman, which suggests trend with respect to the arrests of minorities.
While Barney’s and the NYPD continue to accuse each other for the incident, others speculate that the two entities are actually in collaboration. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says, “Apparently there was some sort of policy between the stores and perhaps some part of the NYPD to profile certain types of customers.”
With similar issues arising in Macy’s, there has been discussion by some about boycotting both department stores. Reverand Al Sharpton told reporters, “Barneys said they didn’t make the call. Macy’s said they didn’t make the call. So until they find the invisible man, we may recommend that people be invisible in their stores.”
Additionally, a change.org petition, which called for Jay-Z to end his collaboration with Barney’s, has gathered over 30,000 signatures. While the rap mogul refuses to end the collaboration, as proceeds are going to charity, he expressed outrage not at Barney’s or the NYPD, but of his unwanted public involvement in the situation. He asked: “Why am I being demonized, denounced and thrown on the cover of a newspaper for not speaking immediately? The negligent, erroneous reports and attacks on my character, intentions, and the spirit of this collaboration have forced me into a statement I didn’t want to make without the full facts.”
While he acknowledges the unfortunate situation, he makes an interesting point; “I am against discrimination of any kind, but if I make snap judgments, no matter who it’s towards, aren’t I committing the same sin as someone who profiles?”
Hopefully this type of attitude can serve as an inspiration to not only those involved in the conflict, but also to others judging it so that a vicious cycle of uninformed discrimination can be put to an end.