According to Barney’s New York and the eager NYPD, being black and buying expensive accessories makes one guilty of fraudulent spending. According to The Huffington Post a young, black male college student decided to spend three hundred fifty dollars on a Salvatore Ferragamo belt. After making the fancy purchase the young man was picked up by undercover police officers, tipped off by the Barney’s cashier, and arrested, carried off in handcuffs. Nineteen year old Trayon Christian, a freshman at NYC College of Technology in Corona, Queens, showed police his identification, debit card, and Barney’s receipt and was simply and rudely told that because he was a young black person he couldn’t possibly afford such a highly priced item. They went even further to declare that his identification was also false. However, after contacting Chase Bank they were told the young man’s credentials and debit card were indeed authentic.
Christian had no prior police record and he has openly stated that he will never shop at the high-end Madison Avenue store ever again. He even returned the belt, saying he wanted no part of it. In fact, even his reason for buying the belt was innocent. He only wanted to emulate his idol, Harlem rapper Jules Santana, who wears the designer accessories. Both the department store and the police department are being sued by Christian for their discrimination against him. Michael Palillo, Christian’s attorney, stated to The Post that, “His only crime was being a young black man.” In fact, Christian saved up the money from his part-time job which makes his arrest by police even more of a racial blunder.
Barney’s, avoiding comment at first, have now released a statement saying that no employee in their company would ever be part of such a heinous act and that “Barneys New York has zero tolerance for any form of discrimination and we stand by our long history in support of all human rights.” How they can they hold their head up high with the blatant evidence against them is yet to be seen. Their response can be seen on the store’s Facebook page. On another note, don’t the police have better things to do than arrest people for shopping legitimately?
Not too long ago there was another unbelievable discrimination case against a young black woman who worked at Hooters and was fired for having blonde highlights. It seems that in a time when such thoughtless discrimination should exist less and less it only increases with time.
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