An Asian employee at Abercrombie & Fitch was once let go because there were “too many Asian people” working at the store, Metro reports.
A new documentary released on Netflix called White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch, is exposing the racism that permeated Abercrombie’s culture.
In 2004, people of color brought a lawsuit against the company accusing it of offering certain floor and management positions to white applicants over applicants of color, LAD Bible reports.
In the documentary, Jennifer Sheahan says she was let go because too many Asian people were working in the store.
“The real reason was because after the corporate blitz, one of the people from corporate went around and noticed a bunch of Asian people in the store,” Shehan said in the documentary.
“They said, ‘well, you need to have more staff that looks like this’ and they pointed to an Abercrombie poster, and it was a Caucasian model.”
Dr. Anthony Ocampo claimed in the documentary that he was told he could not be rehired because two Filipinos were already working at the store. He had not even told management he was Filipino.
“I’ve never seen racism that explicit,” he said in the documentary. “I was really p*ssed off. I was in a rage that never went away.”
Carla Barrientos, a Black woman, said she was scheduled for more night shifts than day shifts. Seeking more hours, she requested more day shifts but was told only night shifts were available. When she attempted to swap shifts with a co-worker her request was denied.
Abercrombie removed Barrientos from the schedule altogether.
After settling the 2004 lawsuit for $50 million, Abercrombie agreed to change its recruitment, hiring and marketing policies. It also hired a Chief Diversity Officer.
But they faced trouble again in 2015 when Samantha Elauf alleged that she was denied a job after wearing a headscarf to her interview in 2008. Abercrombie fought back but lost the case in the Supreme Court.
Phil Yu, the founder of a blog called Angry Asian Man, also discussed the racist graphic t-shirts the clothing company sold. One shirt had the words “Buddha Bash” on it with a picture of a stereotypical Buddha. Another shirt was called Wong Brothers, which advertised a fake Asian laundry service.
“Two Wongs can make it white,” the slogan on the t-shirt read.
In the documentary, Yu suggested that had an Asian person been in the room they might have pointed out the shirts were not a good idea.
Savas Abadsidis, former editor and chief of A&F quarterly claimed that two of the main “team people” were Asian which was why the shirts got approved. He added that he also had nothing to do with the shirts.
“Maybe there was somebody and your cover is the one Asian guy in the room, right,” Yu said in the documentary. “It’s the one guy who’s like, ‘I don’t…’ ‘Do you find it offensive?'”
“And is that guy really gonna be like, ‘No.’ I mean, ‘Yeah.’ … Or is he gonna flip over the table be like, ‘No I think this is offensive to my identity.’ In that environment. In this corporate, stuffy environment, where everyone around you is white… I don’t know if that’s really a safe place to do that.”
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