When SZA tweets, people listen. Last month, the Grammy-nominated singer shared an unfortunate experience at a Sephora in Calabasas, CA, where she felt racially profiled.
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
When SZA—who used to work in the skincare department of Sephora herself—revealed that she was there to stock up on Fenty Beauty products, Rihanna herself reached out to let the singer know that she had her back in the form of a Fenty gift card.
Now, Sephora has announced that in light of the incident, the makeup chain will shut all (roughly) 460 U.S. stores this week to hold “diversity training” for the entire staff. The shutdown will also include all distribution centers and corporate offices for an hour on Wednesday.
“We have been informed of an incident at our Calabasas store and in addition to reaching out to SZA directly, we are gathering more information about the incident in order to take the proper next steps,” Sephora told Reuters in an email statement. “We take complaints like this very seriously, profiling on the basis of race is not tolerated at Sephora.”
The morning workshop is the first step in their newly launched We Belong to Something Beautiful campaign.
“While it is true that SZA’s experience occurred prior to the launch of the ‘We Belong to Something Beautiful’ campaign, the campaign was not the result of this Tweet,” Sephora claimed, adding that the campaign had been in the works for a year.
Timing, however, is everything. Point: SZA.
