Two classic New York City department stores—Barneys and Macy’s—are dealing with controversy regarding their racial profiling of any customer who is not white. In the past few weeks, at least four different individuals have come forward claiming that they were mistreated and suspected of shoplifting or fraud on the basis of race.

The story begins with an African-American college student named Trayon Christian, who was a freshman at the New York City College of Technology last spring. On April 29^th, he went into the popular store Barneys New York to buy a belt. The belt that he was looking for was a Ferragamo and cost $329. Like any 18-year-old kid, he admired his favorite celebrities and had seen some of them with the belt. So, he saved up money from his part time job to buy it for himself. Christian paid with his debit card, showed his ID when asked, and followed all of the general procedures required to make a purchase. He walked out of the store with the belt in a bag and a receipt, and was stopped right away by cops who yelled at him about how he was able to afford a designer belt. Immediately, the 19-year-old was accused of using a fake card. Christian was handcuffed, and then detained and interrogated for two hours until it could be determined that his card was, in fact, valid.

The next person to come forward was Kayla Phillips, and like Christian she was a young African-American student. She was purchasing a designer Celine purse for $2500. She had received a large, unexpected tax refund a few days before, and decided to use the extra money to treat herself and purchase a designer bag. She had a strikingly similar experience to Christian. She was followed by no less than four undercover cops and questioned about her ability to afford the bag. Like in Christian’s case, the officers were convinced that she was perpetrating credit card fraud.

A few days after these two stories broke, allegations also came out against Macy’s department store. Rob Brown, 29, is an actor who is currently on HBO’s hit show Treme. According to a suit filed this week by Brown, he went into Macy’s to buy a $1350 watch as a present for his mother. He was looking at a pair of sunglasses that caught his eye when he suddenly grabbed by three officers. According to the suit, the officers told him that the ID “was false and that he could afford to make such an expensive purchase.” Despite the fact that Brown showed them various forms of ID that clearly matched the card he was using, he was still put in handcuffs and detained for 45 minutes.

These three cases are in various stages of moving forward and list both these retailers as well as the NYPD. Now, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has begun investigations into these complaints. The purpose is to determine if Barneys and Macy’s have violated various civil rights laws that prohibit racial discrimination. The AG has demanded that these stores release information about the stopping, detainment, and interrogations of various customers.

Barneys has released an apology, but these suits and investigation will rightly move forward. I would be entirely unsurprised if more claims come out against other companies in the coming days and weeks. It would be hard to imagine that Barneys and Macy’s profile in a way that is unique to those companies; it is much more probable that we’ll hear similar situations with Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, and others. It’s also hard to imagine that this is an issue unique to New York City, I would imagine such profiling happens around the country as well. This story that began with a teenage boy who just wanted to buy a new belt has the potential to turn into a major retail firestorm.

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Anneliese Mahoney (@AMahoney8672) is Lead Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

Featured image courtesy of [Steve Depolo via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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