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| Trayon Christian is suing Barneys and the NYPD for racial profiling. He purchased a designer belt and was immediately singled out by the sales representatives as a potential thief. |
The high price luxury department store is facing a lawsuit from a man who felt that his money wasn't good enough for them. He purchased a big ticket item and the employees figured that he was a "shady" character and called the law on him.
Upon leaving the store, he was confronted by store security and told that he was being held for suspicion. The New York Police Department gets involved and takes the man to the lockup.
Trayon Christian is a 19-year old man who is an engineering student (and I am guessing part-time rapper/entertainer) was shopping at the New York upscale department store Barneys for a luxury belt that worn by Juelz Santana of the DipSet.
He managed to work them hours and earned his opportunity to buy some $349 Ferragamo belt with a silver buckle and a reversible black and white strap.
In the spring of this year, he went to store. He purchased the product. He got out the identification and got the receipt. He would leave the store and about a few blocks down Christian was confronted by the law.
They detained him for a few hours and force a call upon his debit card company to verify his identity. After the situation concluded, he would later be released.
He was very frustrated with this situation. He returns the belt and vowed to never shop at the department store again.
Soon a lawsuit would emerge against Barneys and the NYPD for the altercation. The civil rights leaders (Rev. Perm and Cut His Nuts Off Jackson) are working on a mediation with the company CEO Mark Lee who had no comment on the situation.
I am guessing that Lee is working on firing those involved and making a personal plea to shoppers to not feel like they're not welcomed there.
I understand fraud is happening in the retail sector. Companies are now requiring people to go through a few new extra maneuvers to prevent credit card fraud. It happens in America, some people would find ways to cheat the system by stealing credit cards, obtaining store credit and faking injuries at the expensive of a company. Its a costly business and law enforcement are trying to curb it.
But the very fact that
Christian had a receipt and his identification to verify he owned the card and still was detained was a shame.
Another shopper is accusing Barneys New York of racial profiling.
Kayla Phillips, who is black, says police questioned her after she purchased a $2,500 designer handbag at the high-end department store in February.
She says she came forward after hearing about a lawsuit brought by a black teen who said he was wrongfully detained after buying an expensive belt.
The 21-year-old Phillips says she was surrounded by police after leaving the store. She says they demanded to know why she used a debit card without a name on it.
She says it was a temporary card. After showing them identification and a new debit card that had arrived in the mail that morning, they let her go.
Barneys has denied involvement in any detention. The officers' role is under internal review.
Yeah, ever heard of the saying shopping while Black?
Oh, before you go into to the rant about how "US BLACK FOLK" are so fixated on "BLAMING THE WHITE GUY", we want the critics to understand that controversies occur quite often.
Last year, a Harvard student was denied access to a club in Raleigh, North Carolina.
This year, Oprah Winfrey said that she was told by a sales representative in Zurich, Switzerland that she could purchase a lower price item. The sales representative didn't believe the media mogul had money to purchase a high ticket item.
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| Juelz Santana (center) with rappers Lloyd Banks (left) and 2 Chainz (right). |
Just a few months ago, in Charleston, South Carolina, there was a man and his family denied food service after the manager of the restaurant said that a customer complained about feeling "intimidated" by the large group.
Okay, if you want to know how close to home it came, think about my situation.
I've worked at a gas station some time ago and a woman who had trouble trying to operate a fuel pump was being totally irate over the situation. We were busy and I tried to help her through the intercom. We had a new policy that prevent credit card fraud and the woman refused to understand. She would threatened to call the police on me because she believe that I was intentionally trying to deny her service. It was a White woman. In her mindset she felt that since I was a Black man, she felt intimidated by me and she would threaten to call the law on me. Somehow I wished the situation would have went differently, but alas it didn't.
And it had to do with the company's decision to have a zip code requirement for credit cards users.
One of my co-workers had binoculars zero in on a customer who was Black. The customer was frequent regular and he usually pulls up because he had a disability from being a war veteran. The co-worker saw him leave the pump to circle around. She would run after him and try to confront him. The man would tell her that he is disabled and he had trouble trying to walk. He felt that her rush to judgment ended the long standing relationship with the company. He never would come back.
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| LUXURY BELT. |
Yeah, we're in the mindset of some in America. In their minds, when we see a menacing Black guy or a group of Black people, they lock up the doors. Women clutch their purse. Women cover their blouse. Security do extra surveillance. Police follow you through a few neighborhoods hoping you make a traffic violation.
Anytime an issue that involves a White person doing an injustice upon a Black person, the racist right would react to it. They would look at the personal profile of the Black person. They would peek into the social networks of the individual and try to smear the victim. They will claim that the junk food media would rather focus on stories that feature Black and Hispanic victims instead of White victims.
In the same breath, the racist right would be very giddy over a Black on White crime. They want to prove a point that "US BLACK FOLK" are the "TRUE RACIST".
If a White person was a victim of injustice by a Black or Hispanic person. The racist right will become reactionary. They will find ways to say that this individual would have been one of Obama's sons, a little Trayvon Martin or a Black thug. They would later say that the media refuses to cover the story because the victim is White.
They would push narratives to blame President Barack Obama and the Black community.
Juelz Santana appears on Def Jam. He is affiliated with The Diplomats (DipSet) and the Skull Gang.
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