Jay Z is not the enemy — Barneys is, the Rev. Al Sharpton said Saturday, going easy on the rapper even while he threatened to mount a boycott of the luxe department chain after two shoppers alleged they were racially profiled.
Speaking to reporters at his National Action Network offices, Sharpton vowed to put shopping at Barneys “on hold” if store execs didn’t have an acceptable plan for ending discrimination when his NAN reps meet with them on Tuesday.
“Bring the data,” he urged execs, referring to store records of all the shoppers — white and minority — who may have been reported to NYPD for making expensive purchases.
If Barneys claims it can’t quickly compile those records because the holiday season is looming, then, “That means we got some days off,” Sharpton said. “We’ll march all the way down to your store — I’ll serve turkey right on the corner.”
As for Jay Z — who is due to debut a clothing line at the chain next month — Sharpton did not join in the rising social media clamor for the rapper to pull out of the deal. Jay-Z released a statement on his website Saturday saying he isn’t “making a dime” off his work with Barneys.
“Some people want to make this about Jay-Z,” Sharpton said. “No, this is about Barneys first.”
Sharpton is accusing the store of “colluding” with the NYPD to harass minority shoppers just for making pricey purchases.
“What is the collusion between the NYPD and your security that four blocks away from the store, the NYPD stops somebody that bought something in your store?” Sharpton asked. “We call 911 and can’t get no response. Somebody spent over two grand, and you pick them up four blocks later.”
Kirsten John Foy, who heads NAN’s Brooklyn office, joined in telling reporters that Jay Z is not NAN’s target.
“There’s a lot of talk about whether or not Barneys should be doing business with certain black people,” said Foy. “I think it’s a racist notion to assume that the only black person Barneys does business with is Jay Z. We’re not there to focus on Jay Z.
“Jay-Z did not write the corporate policy at Barneys. Jay-Z is just like every other business man, he is there to make money and if he is the only black business man that does business with Barneys – that is the problem.
“Barneys is what’s on the table right now,” Foy said.
Barneys New York said Friday that the company has hired an anti-discrimination lawyer to review the store’s practices, and has agreed to address NAN’s concerns.
The company has also posted an apology on its Facebook page.
The two young shoppers, both black, are accusing Barneys of sending police officers to stop and question them after they made expensive purchases in Manhattan last week.
Kayla Phillips, a 21-year-old nursing student from Brooklyn, told reporters that four undercovers pursued and detained her after she bought a $2,500 Celine handbag in February. She has filed a notice of her intention to sue the NYPD, and said she also plans to sue Barneys.
Tryon Christian, a 19-year-old technical college student from Queens, has sued the NYPD and Barneys, saying he was cuffed and detained for two hours in April after he bought a $349 Ferragamo belt.
Both shoppers say the cops grilled them on whether their cards were legit — they were — and on how they could possibly afford to buy expensive goods.
Rob Brown, who starred in “Finding Forrester” and on HBO’s “Treme,” has meanwhile charged that Macy’s midtown flagship store had sicced the cops on him back in June after he bought a $1,000 Movado watch for his mom’s graduation.
Brown was tossed into a cell at Macy’s for more than an hour, causing him to miss the ceremony, the actor said in a lawsuit filed Friday.
Joe Lhota joined in slamming Barneys on Saturday, saying at an NAACP forum in Crown Heights that, “There is no room or role for racial profiling at all in our city.”
“We need to investigate what’s going on here,” the Republican mayoral candidate said. “It seems a little bit more than a trend to me.”
Lhota — who’s criticized Democratic rival Bill de Blasio for trying to roll back the NYPD’s use of stop and frisk — stopped short of calling on a Barneys boycott, but promised to hold police accountable if they engage in profiling on his watch.
“Any police officer who racially profiles when I am mayor will be fired, plain and simple,” he said.
De Blasio skipped the NAACP forum to attend an event on Staten Island, but said Barneys should be given a chance to make things right. If the store does not, a boycott should be considered, he said.
“Barney’s should fix this problem now,” he said. “It’s time for them to very humbly admit what they did wrong and change it and move forward. If they don’t, then it’s worth talking about other actions.”
Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts, Jennifer Bain and Michael Gartland