In the wake of revelations that Barneys New York had engaged in racial profiling of black customers shopping at the store, Jay Z—who's releasing a holiday collection with the store on November 20—had previously issued a statement that basically amounted to "I'm looking into it." Later revelations found that the store had indeed changed their security policies, and as a result, disporportionately targeted black shoppers.
Well, Hov has now weighed in on the matter, in a post to Life + Times. Basically, he's keeping the collection with Barneys, and it will launch as planned.
But there are caveats. Jay brokered one hell of a deal:
- According to the press release, Jay's going to have a leadership role and a seat on a council "specifically convened to deal with the issue of racial profiling."
- As opposed to the 25% of the proceeds Jay's charity was going to get from the collection, Jay negotiated a deal with Barneys where, now, 100% of the proceeds from the collection will now go to Jay's charity, The Shawn Carter Foundation.
- The Shawn Carter Foundation will also recieve 10% of all sales from Barneys New York and Barneys.com on November 20, when his collection drops.
This sounds like the kind of deal one brokers when they have the opposing side in a sling. It's also savvy as hell. Jay wins on all sides of this—good press on one end, charity money on the other, and he gets a fashion line to go forward—but cynicism about Jay Z's motives aside, if all that money really is going to charity, and not, say, Barneys pockets, there are far worse outcomes.
The entire statement—including Jay's assertion that he's in contact with the New York State Attorney General's office, which, not a sentence we ever thought we'd read in this lifetime—right here:
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