Sephora to briefly close all US stores for diversity training after racial incident

Cosmetics retail chain Sephora will reportedly close all of its brick-and-mortar U.S. stores, distribution centers and corporate offices Wednesday for a company-wide diversity training program.

The closures come after R&B music artist SZA, who is black, said in April she was racially profiled by employees at a Sephora store in Southern California, according to a Reuters report.

{mosads}In a post on Twitter about the incident, SZA said a Sephora employee she identified as “Sandy” called security to watch her and make sure she was not stealing.

A Sephora spokesperson told Reuters that the company-wide closures of Sephora stores is not in “response to any one event.”

In addition to the company’s “inclusivity workshops” scheduled for Wednesday, Sephora is rolling out a marketing campaign called “We Belong to Something Beautiful” aimed at promoting diversity.

SZA reportedly used to work at Sephora in the skin-care department before her successful music career took off.

Sephora is owned by Paris-based company LVMH, which is also behind the high-end fashion line Louis Vuitton.

Sephora will become the second high-profile company to shutter its retail stores as employees receive diversity training.

Starbucks closed more than 8,000 stores for a day last year for employees to participate in an anti-bias training program after a Philadelphia Starbucks employee called the police on two black men who were in the store’s lobby waiting on a friend.