Is Jay Z being hypocritical with his Barneys deal?

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Barneys is not the first or the last establishment to be accused of racial profiling, but the famous name attached to recent incidents ensures another round of national conversations on the topic. What can we reasonably expect from celebrities on this issue?

Jay Z once encouraged all of his fans and colleagues to boycott Cristal after an executive at the high-end champagne purveyor said he didn’t want the brand associated with hip-hop. In the second verse of his hit single “99 Problems,” Jay Z related a compelling first-person narrative of being stopped by the police for being “young and black with his hat real low” and also being very aware of his rights. (That verse, by the way, was analyzed by a legal scholar to determine if Jay Z’s assessment of his rights was correct. Hov did pretty well.)  He held a multi-million-dollar campaign fundraiser for President Obama and Jay Z and his superstar wife Beyoncé attended a rally in support of slain teen Trayvon Martin. Mr. Shawn Carter is no stranger to politics, institutional racism or civil rights.

Given that track record, some people expected Jay Z to have something substantial to say after Barneys (a luxury department store with which he has a clothing and accessories contract inked and soon to be executed) was recently twice accused of racial profiling at its flagship store in Manhattan. Both accusers were young, black people who made purchases for relatively large sums using legitimate debit cards, but were still questioned (and in one instance detained in a holding cell) by plain-clothed police officers.

Unflattering headlines, countless blog posts and at least one online petition demanded that Jay Z rip apart his contract with Barneys and stand firm with the two young people behind the latest racial profile allegations. After a few days, Jay Z released a statement, but that statement still left his detractors wanting more.

In the statement, he said he wanted everyone to know that he will not earn a penny from the Barneys deal. Percentages of the proceeds will go to his Shawn Carter Foundation to assist with college scholarships.  He also said that “he moves and speaks based on facts not emotion” and that he is simply waiting for more facts to emerge before making any final decisions.  He noted that he himself has been a victim of racial profiling and empathizes with anyone who has endured that.

Representatives from Barneys will be meeting with community leaders this week, so perhaps Jay Z will have all the facts he needs decide what to do with his Barneys contract. My guess would be that Barneys will issue a carefully worded statement (that will not admit guilt) noting that they are reviewing security procedures, employee training and their relationship with the NYPD and as a show of good faith, they will be donating X amount of dollars to a civil rights organization or two.

The headlines will fade away, updates on the cases might pop up months later, racial profiling will still exist and everyone can go back to making money.

Jay Z is not a rapping Malcolm X and there is no reason to expect him to be that. Sure he has donated to politics and he turned his back on a brand he used to shout out for free after it turned its back on him, but let’s not forget who we are talking about here. This is the man who in the midst of a public tiff with activist/legend/entertainer Harry Belafonte, said that his presence is charity.

It would be great if a former-drug-dealing, public-housing-living black man who became a multi-millionaire entertainer and legitimate businessman used his influence and newly acquired wealth to chip away at institutional racism and point out the layers and intersections of discrimination that create incidents of racial profiling. To his credit, Jay Z is a smart guy who has poured money into various worthy causes, but do we really expect him to be a civil rights activist?

It would be nice if he were an ardent civil rights activist — music is very powerful after all — but let’s hand the torch to someone who wants it, can’t get rid of it, feels compelled to hold it.  However, informing someone of the obvious is important, too.  Sometimes people forget what life was like before the invisible shield of an overflowing bank account kept out some of life’s everyday insults. Why would you patronize a company whose actions seem to suggest it wants the money from, but not the presence of, people who look like you? Conducting business via multi-million dollar contracts or $25 keychains or $2 pizza slices to businesses with such practices is insane. Yet so many of us do just that.

Almost every adult of color I know has been racially profiled whether it was at Barneys, a bodega or a bookstore. Reactions to such treatment vary. Sometimes there’s a one-person boycott (which is usually temporary) or a strongly worded letter to management or a social media rant or the most common—nothing more than a story to add to the frequent conversations about racial profiling incidents.

It’s no secret that many retailers, big and small, utilize racial profiling. Whether you are a famous actor like Forest Whitaker or Rob Brown, who both endured racial profiling this year in separate incidents, or if you are one of the nameless many who go through it on a regular basis—racial profiling is rampant.  Is boycotting every establishment the answer? Do we force celebrities to cut ties with every company with known/suspected cases? How do we move forward?

Follow Demetria Irwin on Twitter at @Love_Is_Dope and connect with her on Facebook.