STORE CLOSED.
Women rushing on their lunch break to a Sephora in any city location? TOO BAD. Come back tomorrow.
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS will be lost. Sephora is rich enough to take the massive loss of a FULL DAY'S SALES in EVERY STORE.
An irony is that the cause for all this is Sephora's investment in loss prevention!
Sephora pays for security in every store, and that includes people keeping an eye on suspicious characters. BUT...one woman "of color," as we say, felt that she was being racially profiled.
Is it possible she was simply being checked out because she had a big purse on the counter, or had on a scarf or sloppy clothing that could easily conceal some concealer or lipstick?
The woman in question, a rapper named SZA, posted about the incident, and seemed to laugh it off as just a minor annoyance.
It wasn't like...she was in a mall and suddenly ATTACKED AND TOSSED 40 FEET down, by someone of another race, causing multiple fractures of her face, arm and leg, and the removal of her spleen.
THAT happened, and the famous "Mall of America" did not close down as a solemn show of sympathy and support.
"...We had a long talk. U have a blessed day..."
In other words, the sister took care of business. She let the store manager, or the security guard, know that she was not shoplifting, and that they made a mistake. Was it also racial profiling? Stats would prove that security guards know exactly who the most likely criminals are. If she fit the description, too bad.
Either way, an incident in ONE store involving ONE person, with no violence, no "N-word" shouts, and no disruption to other customers, should not lead to...
EVERY STORE CLOSING! EVERY EMPLOYEE TO UNDERGO DIVERSITY TRAINING!
Sephora actually Tweeted an apology to SZA but figured it couldn't possibly be enough. What? A mere apology? Not an offer of $1000 in free cosmetics? CLOSE EVERY STORE IN AMERICA and INCONVENIENCE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE, black and white and brown and any other color??
IDIOCY.
First off, most of Sephora's employees having nothing to do with security. They are drones who shelve shit, cashier crap, and leave security to the security guards.
Secondly, some kind of scolding will have no effect on any actual racists who work at Sephora, and it also doesn't address OTHER forms of abuse. For example...snubbing old people, being snotty to a teenager who isn't going to be making a huge purchase, or giving the skunk-eye to a drag queen.
Does SZA know for a fact she was profiled? Does she also know that security guards may go after anyone with a large purse, or a big shopping bag that things can be dropped into? Does she know the security business well enough to realize that quite often, it's the RICH LOOKING person who is profiled and followed because professional shoplifters costume themselves to look rich and above suspicion??
What IS your idea of DIVERSITY, oh suffering SEPHORA? You hired a truly trained psychiatrist or therapist to go to EACH store and lecture? To lecture ONLY on women "of color" and not others who are often marginalized by busy sales personnel, or eyed with suspicion by security?
Does Security profile an old pensioner on a fixed budget, who might be likely to swipe some pancake make-up? Sephora made headlines in NYC when they arrested the daughter of an ex-mayor. She was not "of color." But she was eyed, and caught. What kind of profiling was THAT?
Now let's come around to what shutting down a chain store does.
It tells the public, "We at SEPHORA are morbidly shocked, upset, in a tizzy, and shuddering and shaking and wringing our little hands over one incident in one store. So anyone who feels racially profiled should start shouting and making a scene. And please, please, PLEASE understand that one day of diversity training will cure everything, even though we hire and fire dozens and dozens every week. Any employee who came in AFTER the day's diversity training, surely will know not to give more than a polite glance to anyone "of color" no matter how suspicious they may be acting..."
But what about a very obvious case of racial profiling that nearly caused a young boy's death at the fabulous MALL OF AMERICA?
Minnesota is becoming quite the place for reverse racism. The was the Somali-born cop who shot a white woman dead for no reason. You didn't see any white football player taking a knee over that.
Then there's the guy who, angry about his sex life, decided he wanted to kill somebody.
Did he pick a black woman? NO. He picked a five year-old white boy.
NOBODY has suggested racial profiling. NOBODY has suggested this was a hate crime. NOBODY asked why it was that this black man singled out a white boy to throw over a railing and nearly murder.
MALL OF AMERICA didn't shut down for a day, and, like Martin Luther King JR. Day, declare somberly, "We remember that racism is not dead, and we stand against it."
What's the deal on Martin Luther King Jr. Day? "Hey, a black man was shot by a white guy, so you don't get any mail today."
Sephora is telling its customers, "A black woman was dissed in ONE of our stores, so NOBODY gets to shop at ALL on June 5th."
But MALL OF AMERICA is saying, "What, a 5 year-old kid got traumatized, nearly killed, and is suffering tremendous pain and agony? Might be disfigured? Might not be able to play like any normal kid ever? WE ain't shuttin' down for THAT!"
Every day, Jews, Native Americans, Old people, Asians, and others who suffer in silence, get abused. You can bet if any of them had an incident in Sephora with a rude clerk or a nasty security guard, NOTHING would happen. But a minor rapper "of color?" Case CLOSED. ALL STORES CLOSED.
Somebody dressed shabby walks into a Sephora, and gets followed. Profiled. Is Sephora going to shut down for a day and tell its employees not to be suspicious of someone who doesn't look like they can afford to buy a lot? Is Sephora going to remind its employees that sometimes eccentric people have a lot of money, or maybe buy gifts for others while not caring how they themselves look? Anyone telling a Sephora employee that the old lady they are ignoring, or following as a potential shoplifter, might have a crisp $100 bill and a grand daughter she does on?
Is it not possible that a Sephora employee ever made a racial slur to a Jewish woman? Maybe "If you are going to powder your NOSE, you'll need the LARGEST SIZE box of powder we have..." Fact is, that woman could have a cellphone video of that remark, and post it on YouTube, and Sephora would merely say "We're sorry, we fired the employee" and NOT close every store down.
How many incidents are on police blotters about Sephora every week? Incidents of disorderly conduct, false arrest, tossing some elderly woman out of the shop, etc. etc. But one woman "of color" who happens to be a rapper who plays a few festivals, and it's WE MUST SHUT DOWN EVERY STORE!!
Not all minorities are treated equally. In some cases, there's a kneejerk, and a bendover backward. In other cases, there's blindness.
The black guy who nearly murdered the white boy? For a crime that nobody considered racially motivated, he was sentenced so mildly he could be paroled in a dozen years. Yes, by the time he's 36, he could be out, and even angrier than before. He will be sprung loose only a few years later, no matter what. Nearly KILLED somebody, certainly involving more racial profiling than a security guard's actions in a beauty shop, but MALL OF AMERICA didn't close, and nobody suggested this maniac be put away for life or sent to the looney bin. Pretty...crazy.
There's a difference between suffering...and Sephora-ing. One gets an entire chain of stores shut for the day, and the other gets no reaction from the Mall where the incident took place.
No comments:
Post a Comment