In Collierville, Tenn., last week, Jovita Jones Cage returned a bra with a receipt to Victoria’s Secret because the security tag had not been removed. An employee later called the police, and Jones was approached, cuffed with no explanation, escorted out and told she was banned from shopping there.
“Victoria’s Secret, owned by L Brands, offered a gift card and apology to Jones Cage. The lingerie company’s CEO, Les Wexner, and his four direct reports are all white men. Jones Cage refused the gift card on the grounds that it wasn’t going to stop racial profiling from happening to other people.
Jones Cage has filed a complaint with the NAACP and said the company is going to have to do more. “I hope after this, other victims of racial profiling with come forward. It’s about everyone being treated fairly,” she explained.
The bra retailer, whose male CEO has no women reporting to him, released an apology that stated: “We do not tolerate this behaviorWe are committed to delivering an excellent shopping experience to every customer, every time.” They also included that they had fired the sales associate and that they were meeting with all employees of that store to reinforce values and policies.
Policies like giving a gift card to encourage a profiling victim to spend her money in a store that doesn’t respect her This isn’t the company’s first incident, nor disingenuous response. In 2016, a Facebook viral video put the company on blast for racial profiling of a Black woman, Kimberly Houzah in Oxford, Ala., because a different Black woman had been caught stealing. Houzah returned to the store the next day with the NAACP. The company’s apology said this doesn’t represent what they stand for and that the sales associate was fired.
Another 2016 profiling incident in California resulted in two Black women suing the company for $4 million. In their complaint, they allege “pervasive racist sentiment” despite the company’s claims to support diversity. And back in 2013, Victoria’s Secret was part of a probe in New York City, along with 16 other stores, regarding racial profiling and loss prevention store policies, led by the NYC Commission of Human Rights.
But CEO Les Wexner has condemned Trump for his racist comments on immigration, “s**thole countries” and the Charlottesville incident. It seems like a major disconnect if you’re going to tell other people how not to be racist while you haven’t cleaned up your own stores.
