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Abercrombie & Fitch at it againby Prometheus 6
December 9, 2003 - 11:05am. on Race and Identity The store that brought you t-shirts bearing offensive Asian characature washing clothes with the slogan "Two Wongs Make It White" continues it's enlightened policies. In the article, Larry Elder…long at or close to the top of the Troublesome Negro list…has the most precious quote: As black talk show host and lawyer Larry Elder said on "60 Minutes,'' "This is about a business deciding, pursuant to its best interests ... that a particular kind of salesperson is more likely to generate more dollars. A&F ought to have the right to set their own policies for good or for ill.''
Well, no. Then it also would be OK for a restaurant owner in Selma, Ala., to claim he doesn't hire African Americans because white waitresses and cooks make his white customers more comfortable and are better for business. "And that argument died a long time ago,'' said Garry Mathiason, a senior partner at Littler, Mendelson, which represents about 30,000 employers. "It's not only legally wrong, it's not accepted by society.'' Retailer's image problem: Racism Joan Ryan Tuesday, December 9, 2003 I didn't get her name, but I'm guessing Brittany or Jordan. She was standing at the check-out counter yesterday of the Abercrombie & Fitch store at the San Francisco Center on Market Street. She was blond, thin and wearing a spaghetti-strap camisole and a cutoff-jeans miniskirt low enough on her hips to reveal the waistband of her Abercrombie & Fitch long johns. "Can I help you?'' "I'd like to apply for job,'' I said. "Oh,'' she said, momentarily flustered. "You want to check on an application?'' "No, I'd like an application.'' She handed me the form, then at my request left to fetch the manager. Huge photographs of fresh-faced blonds covered the walls. As I waited, two actual fresh-faced blond employees, trying not to be obvious, peeked around the wall to take a look at me for themselves. Word had spread: A middle-aged woman in a turtle-neck and slacks was asking for an application. To work here. With us. I must have seemed to them like a slab of headcheese trying to sneak on to a plate of petits fours. The fresh-faced blond manager couldn't have been nicer. He said all the right things: The store was always looking for good people, so drop off the finished application any time. But I haven't turned in the application. I don't need another job, and I know -- and the surely manager knows -- I don't embody the carefully and expensively created A&F persona. Neither, apparently, do young minority applicants, according to a class- action suit filed against the 602-store chain. The plaintiffs claim Abercrombie & Fitch discriminates against minorities by pressuring stores to hire sales associates who fit the "A&F look,'' which from their catalogs, advertisements and looping videos in their stores, is white, young and preferably blond. The plaintiffs claim they were denied jobs or squeezed out of jobs because of their race or ethnicity. Trackback URL for this post:http://www.prometheus6.org/trackback/2430
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