Trayon Christian
A few days ago 19-year-old Trayon Christian was arrested for buying a $300 designer belt..It was a belt he saw being worn by rapper Julez Santana in a video. Trayon who works a part-time job, saved up for 6 months to get enough money to purchase the belt.
A clerk inside a high-end retail store Barneys New York, holding a George Zimmerman type mindset felt that Trayon was ‘suspicious‘ and that he ‘was up to no good‘ because he was purchasing such an expensive belt at such a young age. The clerk felt, Trayon was committing fraud and called the police after swiping the card.
Trayon did nothing wrong, and even worse, never knew he was under suspicion by the clerk. Within minutes plain clothes officers showed up and arrested Trayon accusing him of fraud, even after he showed his receipt and credit card. Police simply didn’t believe everything was on the up and up, handcuffed Trayon and took him to jail…
Folks reading this should stop for a minute a reflect. You make a purchase, have a receipt, use your own hard-earned money and you go to jail.. Here’s a few things here for folks to think about:
First, if you go to Barneys New York twitter page here’s the description for their store. They describe the type of person who they want to come to their store…
One might conclude, that ‘the nice person’ and ‘work hard rule’ doesn’t apply to young Black men shopping in that store. Folks may wanna call Barneys New York and ask them to clarify their policies 1.888.222.7639, especially since the store is denying they did anything wrong. Ask them what will trigger a phone call to the cops after you make a purchase?
Wiz Khalifa was mistreated when he shopped at Barneys New York
Second, folks should keep in mind this is not the first time Barneys New York has pulled this crap. This is the same store where clerks snubbed and followed rapper Wiz Khalifa around the even though he shelled out 16 thousand dollars for purchases. This happened 2 years ago. You can check out that story HERE.
This leads to the question as to whether or not celebrities and rappers who frequent the store or name check it in songs and videos will pull their support? We know that Jay Z is scheduled to partner up with Barneys New York, will this incident lead to him reconsidering?
Third, It’s remarkable how quickly police showed up to arrest this young man. They came in force and in plain clothes, noting the connection between Big Business and police who do their bidding…Trayon Christian was going to be seen in the wrong from jump when NYPD is working in concert with a big companies. Who are they really protecting and serving?
We saw this during Occupy Wall Street, when NYPD was privatized wound up working on behest of big banks who were being protested. This is a program called Paid Detail where officers in 2011 made 11 million dollars working for private companies. You can read about it HERE. Meanwhile there are folks in other parts of the city who will have problems, call the police and they not show up.
Barneys New York CEO Mark Lee
Trayon was arrested and brought to jail and kept for several hours.. The police checked out his story by calling the bank and then let him go. Disgusted with his mistreatment he promptly returned the belt, got his money back and vowed never to shop there again. He is now suing both Barneys New York and NYPD. However, one wonders if they would’ve shown and made arrests if Trayon called to complain about being racially profiled by store clerks? Folks should think about that for a minute.
Since this story has gotten out, many are expressing outrage with NYPD and Barney New York as they should.. Others are upset with Trayon and openly asking; why a 19-year-old college student holding a part-time job would buy a $300 belt.. They are mocking him saying he was foolish and overtly materialistic.
The irony is some people raising this issue and looking down their noses at Trayon have iPhones 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 and every model iPad that’s ever come out. In addition, they are paying anywhere from $125-200 a month in telecom bills that limit the amount of bandwidth you can use all so they can to keep them running, but we’re pointing fingers at dude for getting a belt? We should be pointing fingers at the CEO of Barneys New York Mark Lee for having jacked up policies
Some who are upset with Trayon have closets full of Jordans, Kanyes, Lebrons and any number of basketball shoes named after athletes. They just don’t have one pair, they have several in all sorts of different colors, with price tags ranging from $150- $200 a pop..But they’re mad at homeboy for buying a belt?
Some who are criticizing Trayon for buying a $300 belt are wearing $800 shoes
Some of the women criticizing Trayon for buying this belt have several pair of Loubatin shoes that start at $600 a pair. They’ll look scornfully at any sister who walks in the room wearing knockoffs accusing her of being ‘cheap’. We wont even get into a discussion about all the Coach, Louis Vuitton and other expensive handbags and purses that run into the hundreds and even the thousands that folks own.
Can we talk about expensive hair pieces that some are wearing and how much they cost compared to that belt? We all saw the Chris Rock movie ‘Good Hair’ and saw there’s good number of folks shelling out rent money to get weaves..
Here’s my point, this young brother, Trayon had the good sense after being humiliated to launch a lawsuit against those who dissed him.. He didn’t spend 300.00 bucks.. He got his money back and may make 10 times that when all is said and done…
In the meantime we have all sorts of iPhones, ipads and other expensive gadgets from a companies that not only exploit their overseas workforce, but also uses material from the Congo where millions have been killed and millions have been raped to make sure they have precious metals like coltan used for those iphones..What lawsuit have we launched? What boycott are we leading? When did we return our gadgets and call for companies to put an end to the exploitation, murder, rape and pillaging of our people?
Workers routinely die in overseas factories where expensive goods are made
We have basketball shoes that cost damn near pennies to make in places like Bangladesh where people die routinely by the hundreds because of horrid and dangerous factory conditions..The shoes are marked up 500% and we not only pay for them, but sometimes we’ll rob and kill others for them..What lawsuits have we launched at these companies exploiting 3rd world folks who look like us?
When some basketball stars tried to introduce a less expensive show to the market and kept it Black owned.. We scoffed and laughed and said in order to be down we must floss and rejected the less expensive brands.
With respect to the expensive purses, handbags and hair, we have long known that there’s been a strong undercurrent of intolerance by people offering up those goods.. Many of y’all reading this have been followed dissed and had noses turned up at stores where you brought those fancy handbags. Heck, Oprah was dissed trying to purchase an expensive purse. Yet we still buy these bags with no lawsuits.. Even Oprah didn’t sue
Need we talk about the irony of buying hair that gets marked up to outrageous prices from a country where they have a caste system to this day. People holding our complexion are called ‘untouchables‘ and deemed the lowest of the low..
But as long as the hair looks good, what do we care? As long as the shoes look nice what do we care? As long as that iphone works what do we care? Props to Trayon for taking a stand, when will the rest of us?
written by -Davey D-
It is, yet again, an infuriating outrage that young people, particularly young people of color, are treated as if they are “up to no good.” Trayon is absolutely doing the right thing by acting on the legal level when so many of us stop before that point, apparently satisfied just with expressing our emotions to people who care, or expressing outrage to people who don’t. But we need real organization in order to get real change. they have to be sued because bigots and unconscious racists don’t change their behaviors until their behaviors hurt THEM. They don’t care that they’ve hurt others, and they aren’t hurt by criticism–as shown by the typical failure to even bother to apologize. But a lawsuit? THAT, they want to avoid, along with the media attention that comes with it.
Well written! And good point about the NYPD’s role in this case. Who are they protecting? During Occupy, they were protecting Wall St and businesses. And here they are again, looking out for Barney’s. But if you dare call a cop to help you and you are black or latino, you are likely to be killed yourself.
So now the holiday season is coming up: are black people in New York supposed to stay out of Manhattan?
Tell me. why would the president even consider Ray Kelly was a good candidate for Homeland Security?
I hope trayon sue the crap outta barneys… And u right about people who say he’s dumb for buying a $300 belt but buy expensive sneakers, smartphones, handbags, etc. at least his dumb move will be a smart one if he sue
Thank you so much for giving a voice to my initial thoughts about the flack this young man is getting from his own. How very easily distracted are we? It’s sad and a damned shame that we immediately jump in this young man’s ass for doing exactly what we counsel our youth to do: Word hard and earn the right to do what you will with your own money”. Why are we even considering raising the argument about his spending habits and not raising hell about how he was treated? Seems clear that some of us have been lulled into a coma that dictates that we think ass backwards.
Trayon isn’t the only one to get stopped by police at the Barneys NYC store. Kayla Phillips (Black female, 21 years old) was also stopped not long ago. Check it out:
http://nypost.com/2013/10/23/another-black-shopper-accuses-barneys-of-racism/
Tanger outlets in Riverhead, i worked for Barneys, helping them set up the new Tanger 2. While i was being watched like a hawk, my co workers who were white, robbed them for six armani suits and ties and more. They balled the suits up and took them out with the cardboard, then came back and retreived the gear. All the time they where on me and me i was just working.