Jay Z Is Moving Forward With Barney’s Collection Despite The Store’s Recent Drama

In recent weeks, Jay Z has faced criticism for his continued partnership with Barneys New York in wake of allegations that the store had engaged in the racial profiling of two black customers. After petition calling for the Brooklyn rapper to drop his association with the luxury department store started to circulate online, Jay Z has previously issued astatement announcing that he would be looking into the racial profiling allegations surrounding Barneys but had no plans to disassociate with the company at that time.

In a statement written on his Life + Times blog this evening, Jay Z announced that the holiday collection would be moving forward as planned but under a series of new conditions.

As outlined in the Life + Times press release, Jay Z’s BNY SCC collection will be proceeding along with the following new conditions:

–  Jay Z will have a “leadership role” and a seat on a specifically convened council  that will “deal with the issue of racial profiling.”

– Jay Z’s charity, The Shawn Carter Foundation, will now receive 100% of the proceeds from all sales of his holiday collection. Previously, the foundation was set to receive to receive a modest 25% of sales from the collection.

-In addition to 100% sales of Jay’s holiday collection, The Shawn Carter Foundation will receive 10% of all retail sales from Barneys New York stores nationwide and Barneys.com on November 20th.

You can read the entire contents of Jay Z’s statement directly below:

In the past several weeks two separate investigations were launched as a result of the wrongful detention of Trayon Christian and Kayla Phillips. My team has been privy to the status of the Barneys third party consultant investigation. In continuing our research, we also contacted the New York State Attorney General’s office for the status of their investigation into both Barneys and Macy’s. Those findings are not yet available.

While I await the findings of the Attorney General’s Office, I have agreed to move forward with the launch of BNY SCC collection under the condition that I have a leadership role and seat on a council specifically convened to deal with the issue of racial profiling. I am in a unique position to use my voice to affect change to this disturbing issue. The easy position would have been to walk away and leave policy making to others hoping that someone addresses the problem. I will not leave the outcome to others. I will take this into my own hands with full power to recommend, review and revise policies and guidelines moving forward. I am choosing to take this head on.

As I previously stated, the collaboration with Barneys has always been about giving and The Shawn Carter Foundation. From this collection, the Foundation will receive not only 25% of sales, it will now receive the additional 75% of Barneys’ sales, totalling 100% of all sales from BNY SCC. Along with 100% of sales from the collaboration, the Foundation will receive an additional 10% of all retail sales from Barneys New York stores nationwide and Barneys.com on November 20th. – Shawn “JAY Z” Carter

 

For the original report go to http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2013/11/jay-z-moving-foward-barneys-collection-racial-profiling-issue/