Sorry, but Google is not the only SE and doing something that Google doesn't like does not make it black hat. No Google does not get to define what is and what is not White Hat or Black Hat. If you want a true definition of Black Hat SEO, I suggest that you do a search for the term.
I actually feel more sorry for the SEO firm that did JCPenny's SEO more than JCPenny themselves. That is very bad publicity. It's not like JCP had an inside SEO team in their marketing section so who's to say JCP even knew what the SEO firm was doing?
Why Google not banned that site, it means Google dont treat equally. Instead Google drop the ranking of JCPenney. Whats the reason behind it ?