Following a meeting with Rev. Al Sharpton at the National Action Headquarters in New York, Barneys CEO Mark Lee issued a formal apology to both Trayon Christian and Kayla Phillips, avoiding blame in the process.
No one, and I mean no individual, should go through the unacceptable experiences described by Trayon Christian and Kayla Phillips. We offer our deepest sympathies to both of them.
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.
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. That’s not the policy at Barneys.
Lee also continued to apologize to the Sean Carter Foundation and Jay-Z, who recently issued a statement of his own.
e 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. Our collaboration together is based on the shared mission of helping individuals facing socio-economic hardships. I’m prepared to stand with the Rev. Sharpton and the leaders to effect real change and bring other retailers into the fold. Moving forward there is a broader issue that needs to be addressed and Barneys New York is committed to be part of the solution.
