Sephora US now joins Starbucks and Gucci in the list of brands taking diversity training.
In an Instagram post, Sephora announced they are closing all their branches in the US, as well as their distribution center and corporate office, starting June 5th to undergo inclusion workshops for their employees. Although they didn’t specify an incident that prompted this move, it’s likely they are doing this after SZA accused their Calabasas branch of racial profiling.
Back in April, the singer tweeted that an employee “called security to make sure I wasn’t stealing.” Sephora later responded to her: “You are a part of the Sephora family, and we are committed to ensuring every member of our community feels welcome and included at our stores.”
Lmao Sandy Sephora location 614 Calabasas called security to make sure I wasn’t stealing . We had a long talk. U have a blessed day Sandy
— SZA (@sza) May 1, 2019
Sephora also sent a statement to Reuters, saying they’re investigating what happened at their Calabasas branch. “We take complaints like this very seriously, profiling on the basis of race is not tolerated at Sephora,” they said.
But, according to W Magazine, Sephora’s diversity training and inclusion workshop are a long time coming considering this wasn’t the first time employees were accused of racial profiling. In 2017, two Black women confronted an employee who was following them and allegedly pointed them out to security. There was another incident in 2014 where a group of women filed a class action lawsuit after being locked out of their accounts during a Sephora sale. According to Jezebel, the women “claimed their Chinese names were targeted by the company because Sephora believed they might re-sell the products.”
It’s also equally disappointing since Sephora is under LVMH—the same group who’s backing Rihanna’s Fenty collection. (RiRi even sent SZA a Fenty Beauty gift card after hearing the news.) But then again, their brands Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior were also accused of racism in the past as well.
We hope the diversity training and inclusion workshop does work and makes Sephora US employees better at dealing with POC customers.
[W Magazine and Reuters]
Photo courtesy of SZA’s Instagram account
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