(AllHipHop News) After nearly a week of public discussion about the two alleged racial profiling cases of Trayon Christian and Kayla Phillips at the Barneys New York store, the retailer’s chief executive officer publicly addressed the situation.
CEO Mark Lee held a press conference at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network headquarters following a sit-down with the MSNBC host. While offering an apology to Christian and Philips, Lee contends that no one at Barneys profiled either customer.
“Our preliminary investigation has concluded that, in both of these instances, no one from Barneys New York raised any issue with these purchases,” said Lee according to the New York Post. “No one from Barneys brought them to the attention of our internal security, and no one from Barneys reached out to external authorities.”
Lee stated that racial profiling and discrimination is not a policy at Barneys. He stopped short of blaming the New York Police Department for the profiling of Christian and Phillips saying he can “only speak to what we know from the preliminary investigation.”
Lee also apologized to Hip Hop mogul Jay Z. Jay has an exclusive collection with Barneys that is set to debut next month. Partial proceeds from the sales of “A New York Holiday” will go to the rapper’s non-profit organization.
“We deeply regret that these recent events have distracted from the great work of the Shawn Carter Foundation, and we offer our sincere apologies to Mister Carter,” said Lee.
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