Sephora Stores Shut Down for Diversity Training After SZA Gets Profiled

After SZA tweeted in April that she was racially profiled by a Sephora employee (who she dubs “Sephora Sandy”) the company is shutting down more than 400 stores on June 5 to give its employees diversity training, NBC News reports.

At the time Sephora apologized on Twitter, writing, “We want to let you know we take complaints like this very seriously and are actively working with our teams to address the situation immediately.” The training this week will also include employees in Sephora’s distribution centers and corporate offices.

SZA’s tweet was not the first time customers have complained about being profiled by Sephora. In 2017 a video of black shoppers complaining about being followed by a white employee went viral, especially since the employee assured them that she was “from the hood” and has “tons of black friends.” In 2014 a class action lawsuit was filed against Sephora by a group of women who were locked out of their accounts during a sale and claimed their Chinese names were targeted by the company because Sephora believed they might re-sell the products.

Update, 5:59 p.m.: In a statement to Jezebel, Sephora clarified, “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.” The company added that the “store closure is part a long journey in our aspiration to create a more inclusive beauty community and workplace, which has included forming employee resource groups, building Social Impact and philanthropic programs, and hosting inclusive mindset training for all supervisors.”