Barneys New York CEO Mark Lee publicly extended an apology to black customers and rap star Jay Z on Tuesday as outraged protesters continued to call on the hip hop icon to severe his relationship with the upscale retailer over claims of racial profiling.
Lee told the New York Post company execs have a "zero tolerance" discrimination policy and he strongly feels " no one should go through the unacceptable experiences described by Trayon Christian and Kayla Phillips."
Christian, 19, and Phillips, 25, were both stopped and harassed by police after making expensive purchases from the Madison Ave. store. Detectives allegedly told them they were convinced they didn't have the means to make their purchases and must have been engaging in some form of credit card fraud. Some speculated store employers were the ones who initially called police and expressed those same concerns.
According to The Post on Tuesday, Lee met with the Rev. Al Sharpton and other leaders from the National Action Network where he again insisted "that's not the policy at Barneys. Racial profiling is an extremely serious form of discrimination. We take it very seriously, and if we found that to be factually true we would terminate those individuals involved."
Lee later told the newspaper "our preliminary investigation has concluded that in both of these instances no one from Barneys New York raised any issue with these purchases. No one from Barneys brought them to the attention of our internal security and no one from Barneys reached out to external authorities."
Lee indicated he felt the need to apologize to Jay Z over the way he has become caught up in the scandal because he's slated to launch a clothing and jewelry line at the store.
"We deeply regret that these recent events have distracted from the great work of the Shawn Carter Foundation," said Lee, confirming that the proceeds from the limited edition collection are earmarked for charity. "Our collaboration together is based on the shared mission of helping individuals facing socio-economic hardships."
Jay Z , born Shawn Carter, has released a statement where he maintained he "isn't making a dime" off his Barneys partnership."
Sharpton told The Post retailers need to be aware of what's happening in their stores."If, in fact, NYPD takes it upon themselves to profile, that needs to be dealt with by retailers," he said.
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