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| File- This July 26, 2013 file photo shows the Rev. Al Sharpton gestures as he takes part in a panel discussion during the National Urban League's annual conference in Philadelphia. Sharpton is threatening to boycott luxury retailer Barneys over allegations by shoppers that they were racially profiled there. Sharpton said Saturday Oct. 26, 2013, that black New Yorkers "are not going to live in a town where our money is considered suspect and everyone else's money is respected." |
NEW YORK (AP)
-- The Rev. Al Sharpton threatened Saturday to boycott luxury retailer
Barneys if the department store doesn't respond adequately to
allegations by black shoppers that they were racially profiled there.
"We've
gone from stop and frisk to shop and frisk, and we are not going to
take it," the black civil rights leader said. "We are not going to live
in a town where our money is considered suspect and everyone else's
money is respected."
Two black Barneys New
York customers, Trayon Christian and Kayla Phillips, said this week they
were detained by police after making expensive purchases.
Christian sued Barneys, saying he was accused of fraud after using his debit card to buy a $349 Ferragamo belt in April.
Barneys
said Thursday that it had retained a civil rights expert to help review
its procedures. The CEO of Barneys, Mark Lee, offered his "sincere
regret and deepest apologies."
Kirsten John
Foy, an official with Sharpton's National Action Network, said he would
meet with Barneys officials on Tuesday to discuss the racial profiling
allegations.
"The only theft that took place
at Barneys was Barneys' stealing the dignity of these young people,"
said Foy, who joined Sharpton at his weekly rally at the organization's
Harlem headquarters.
Sharpton said black New Yorkers should put shopping at Barneys "on hold" if the retailer's response is inadequate.
The
profiling claims also incited criticism on Twitter and an online
petition asking rapper Jay-Z, who's collaborating with the luxury
retailer for a holiday collection, to disassociate from it.
Macy's was also hit with a lawsuit alleging racial profiling this week.
A
black actor on the HBO drama series "Treme" said Friday he was stopped
by police because of his race while shopping at Macy's flagship
Manhattan store.
Robert Brown said in his
lawsuit that he was detained by police June 8 after employees contacted
authorities about possible credit card fraud.
Macy's didn't comment on the litigation but said in a statement it was investigating.
Some Sharpton supporters who attended Saturday's rally said they had been profiled in stores, too.
Shane
Lee, 51, said he went to the high-end store Bergdorf Goodman to buy
shirts last year and the sales staff would not assist him.
"Instead of helping me, they were staring at me," said Lee, who is black. "I felt so uncomfortable that I just left."
A Bergdorf Goodman official did not return a call seeking comment Saturday.
