Sephora Needs a Day of Celebrity Training

The cosmetic retail giant saw a shoplifter enter their store when they should have seen a celebrity. The outcome would have been better for all if they had.

The global beauty emporium, Sephora, has announced all locations from stores to distribution centers will close on June 5, 2019, for an hour of “racial bias training.” The goal is to silence an online frenzy after the Grammy-nominated singer SZA tweeted that she was racially profiled after she was suspected of shoplifting at the Calabasas store on April 30, according to WMagazine.

Racial bias is a winning theme for online viewers and will drive a great deal of online rage against Sephora. Let’s keep in mind that SZA has 2.7 million Twitter followers against Sephora’s 2.4 million, which does not include the singer’s network on Instagram and Facebook. In these terms, Sephora called an hourly security guard to frisk a member of digital royalty.

But the real issue isn’t about race, it’s about status, and that is where Sephora failed. As a savvy consumer retailer, what their staff lacked was not racial bias training but celebrity smarts.

When dealing with the public, companies must learn to be aware of a digital danger zone from which companies…