Recently Barneys New York has been under criticism, when in the span of a couple of days two different black shoppers were targeted by the police upon leaving the store. This has led a petition to be created by one avid Jay Z fan, asking Hov to re-neg on his partnership with Barneys for a limited edition Holiday collection.
Jay responded to the petition and the demands that he withdraw from the Barneys partnership over the weekend. Hov explained how all the profits from the Holiday collection go to the Shawn Carter Foundation, and that he was waiting to meet with Barneys officials before making a decision.
Now the CEO of Barneys, Mark Lee, has had a sit-down with Rev. Al Sharpton to discuss what happened at Barneys.
"No one, and I mean no individual, should go through the unacceptable experiences described by Trayon Christian and Kayla Phillips," Lee said on Tuesday. "We offer our deepest sympathies to both of them."
Lee said that his company has a "zero tolerance" policy when it comes to racial profiling. "Our preliminary investigation has concluded that, in both of these instances, no one from Barneys New York raised any issue with these purchases," he said.
Lee went on to apologize to Jay Z. "We deeply regret that these recent events have distracted from the great work of the Sean Carter Foundation, and we offer our sincere apologies to Mister Carter," Lee said. "Our collaboration together is based on the shared mission of helping individuals facing socio-economic hardships"
Lee added, "I’m prepared to stand with the Rev. Sharpton and the leaders to effect real change and bring other retailers into the fold."
