Luxury high-end retailers Barneys & Macy's reveal profiling cases against black shoppers

Furious people took to Facebook to vent their anger over the recent profiling of shoppers in the New York retailer, Barneys.

Anger: Furious Facebook users attacked Barneys' website over what they call 'modern racism', including the likes of rapper, Jay Z

On Barneys' Facebook wall, users have posted their opinions, said the New York Daily News.

Barneys' menswear ad was bombarded with angry comments

'Love these shoes ... but having dark skin, my hard earned money may not be enough to allow the purchase at this establishment,’ Facebook user Amelia Rios Alex wrote on the page, which features glitzy photos of shoes, perfume, jewellery and apparel.

An ad for a John Varvatos suit with the tagline, Modern Monochrome, attracted 72 people to vent about the profiling scandal. 

‘Modern racism,' said John Renaud.

‘Monochrome is right. Whites only’, according to David Nieves.

‘Will I get arrested if I buy this?’ asked Ramona Morgan.

‘Do handcuffs [come] with this or are they sold separately?’ said Facebook user Glenny Lennox.

This comes as a fourth person has come forward with similar claims, this time against Macy's - the second in a week.

Another department store customer came forward Sunday 27 October 2013, with the fourth “shopping while black” complaint in a week — a customer who says he was surrounded by cops after a legitimate purchase at Macy’s Herald Square in New York.

Art Palmer, of Brooklyn, holds the clothes he bought at Macy's Herald Square in April. He says he was stopped and questioned and had his bags searched by undercover NYPD detectives after leaving the store.

JAMES KEIVOM/NEW YORK DAILY NEW

Art Palmer says four plainclothes cops questioned him three blocks away from the flagship store after he bought $320 worth of Polo dress shirts and ties in April.

Palmer, a 56-year-old exercise trainer from Crown Heights, Brooklyn, said he made the purchase without incident, using both his Macy’s platinum card and his American Express card.

He was walking to a gym on Park Avenue when police surrounded him and demanded to see his ID.

The officers said they were suspicious because they had lost sight of him on the store’s surveillance cameras, he said.

When asked if he believed he was racially profiled, he told the New York Daily News that there was 'no other reason'.

He was allowed to continue on his way after he showed his receipt for the duds and the cards with which he purchased them.

When Palmer returned to the store the next day to complain, a Macy’s manager blamed it on the cops and said officers frequently come into the store to monitor surveillance videos without permission, according to Palmer.

The latest accusation echoes those by Trayon Christian and Kayla Phillips against Barneys and by actor Robert Brown against the same Macy’s.

Shocking: Trayon Christian, 19, lclaim they were interrogated by police after buying expensive items from Barneys

Shocking: Kayla Phillips, 21, claim they were interrogated by police after buying expensive items from Barneys

Two black Barneys customers said this week they were detained by police after making expensive purchases, while last week actor Robert Brown said he was paraded through Macy’s Herald Square store in handcuffs and detained for an hour after being racially profiled and accused of using a stolen credit card to buy his mother a $1,350 watch.

Trayon Christian, 19, is suing Barneys, saying he was accosted by undercover NYPD officers after using his debit card to buy a $349 Ferragamo belt in April.

Kayla Phillips, 21, said she was surrounded and interrogated by police after purchasing a $2,500 orange Celine suede handbag from Barneys in February.

Brown, one of the stars of HBO show Treme, was released after being in cuffs for about 45 minutes without any charges.

Robert Brown with Sean Connery who he starred with in the movie, Finding Forrester. Brown is suing Macy's for racial profiling

He’s suing the store and the NYPD, charging cops racially profiled him and violated his constitutional rights.

Fashion megastar Tyson Beckford, 42, told PIX11 on Thursday that he frequently gets judged on the colour of his skin in Barney's and other places.

Tyson Beckford on the Runway

'I might have the most recognisable face in the world. I still get followed all the time, any time I go to a store,' Beckford said outside Barney's.

Barneys CEO Mark Lee (center) joined Lundgren in meeting Rev. Al Sharpton (right) after four complaints about alleged racial profiling at the New York City shopping havens surfaced last monthJames Keivom/New York Daily News

Civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton has threatened protests against Barneys and a possible boycott for 'upscale racial profiling'.

'In major cities like New York, blacks and Latinos not only worry about being “stopped-and-frisked” by police, but they also fear the embarrassment of being “shopped-and-frisked” in retail stores,' he said in an opinion piece for the New York Daily News.

'Perhaps all retailers need a friendly reminder of the immense buying power of blacks and minorities. We will definitely remember those who welcome us and those who would rather profile us, and we will speak loudly with our dollars — bottom line.' We ever naively believe that our work is done?' Sharpton wrote.

Sharpton said it was a 'travesty' that police and retailers interrogate black people who buy expensive items.

'Barneys, a high-end retailer with stores in major cities, must answer for this pattern of biased behaviour, as must the NYPD,' he wrote.

'Our National Action Network (NAN) Brooklyn chapter President Kirsten John Foy said it best when he called Barneys’ behaviour schizophrenic. On the one hand, they want to expand their brand to the urban market, but then they turn around and see us as suspects rather than prospects.

Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren will attend the conference on racial profiling

Pic: M. SPENCER GREEN/AP

'Barneys and other retailers that openly discriminate against us must be held accountable. Simply apologising isn’t enough; we need to see a plan of action as to how they are going to rectify their ways.'

Sharpton has demanded a meeting with Barneys CEO, Mark Lee, and is 'currently mobilising activists for peaceful direct-action against the store and the NYPD.'

Earlier this week, Lee said the company had retained a civil rights expert to help review its procedures and offered his 'sincere regret and deepest apologies'.

'Barneys New York has zero tolerance for any form of discrimination and we stand by our long history in support of all human rights,' Barneys said in a statement.

Barneys New York

In his comment piece, Sharpton also highlighted the experiences of 'Treme' actor, Rob Brown, and Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker.

Brown claimed he was paraded through Macy’s Herald Square in handcuffs and placed in a holding cell because an employee suspected that his credit card didn’t belong to him in June,

Whitaker said he was accused of stealing and patted down after leaving a store in Morningside Heights.

'When international celebrities can be disrespected and mistreated in such a humiliating manner, how can we ever naively believe that our work is done?' Sharpton wrote.

Amidst the controversy let us not forget the buzz around the launch of Jay Z’s Barneys collection more about high prices than style.

Canceled! Barneys calls off Jay Z's holiday fundraiser that promised to raise $1m for his charity after mass furor over racial profiling claims

Some potential shoppers were "disappointed" with the pricey line, while others were willing to drop a few thousand dollars for a piece of Jay Z's look. The launch was marred by the controversy surrounding Barneys after two black New Yorkers said they were racially profiled at the store.

The Madison Ave. display in Midtown is assembled 20/11/13. Jay Z has said all the proceeds from his line will go to charity and that he will sit on a council to tackle racial profiling, unfortunately for the multi-millionaire, on Tuesday the New York Daily News announced the department store chain has canceled the event which guaranteed to raise $1m for the rapper's Shawn Carter Foundation.

The store - which blamed the cancellation on 'unforeseen circumstances'. This comes just after the megastar stood by the expensive New York store just days ago.

In a statement made on his website Friday, Jay Z said he'd agreed to attend the party, which also served as the launch for his BNY SCC fashion collection, under the condition that he helped lead the store's review of its policies.

'The easy position would have been to walk away and leave policy making to others hoping that someone addresses the problem. I will not leave the outcome to others,' he wrote in a statement posted to his website Life and Times: A Statement From Shawn “JAY Z” Carter 11.15.2013.

The rapper-turned-mogul said that one of the stipulations for his continued support of the store was that he be given 'a leadership role and seat on a council specifically convened to deal with the issue of racial profiling'.

'I am in a unique position to use my voice to affect change to this disturbing issue,' he wrote.

'I will take this into my own hands with full power to recommend, review and revise policies and guidelines moving forward. I am choosing to take this head on.'

It's not clear if Jay Z will still get involved with those policies now that the party has been canceled.

So are luxury high end retailers telling black shoppers your money is not respected or wanted here? Have your say..

RELATED ARTICLES
» Rev. Al Sharpton addresses recent racial profiling by high-end stores
» Fourth New York shopper, pointing at Macy’s, makes racial profiling allegations
» Al Sharpton threatens boycott of Barneys over 'racial profiling'
» Barneys calls off Jay Z's fashion collaboration fundraiser that promised to raise $1m for his charity        after mass furore over racial profiling claims
» Barneys, Macy's CEOs to lead city's high-end retailers in anti-racial profiling forum
» Readers sound off on Jay Z, feminism and Elmer Fudd
» Hamill: Between racial profiling and insane prices, Jay Z's Barneys collection a joke
» Jay Z's new Barneys deal doesn't address racial profiling: lawyer 

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