Abercrombie & Fitch: Prejudice Work Environment
In America today there are many different clothing stores. There are stores setting images for all ages and styles. No matter what age, ethnicity, etc. there’s a store for you. One of the most popular stores in the United States today is the esteemed Abercrombie & Fitch store, which markets towards the young and the beautiful. Filled with glamorous portraits of beautiful models on the walls and shelves full of clothing that’s two sizes too small for the average person. Not to mention, their gorgeous staff whose main priorities are how much cleavage they can reveal. From the outside this store would seem like a wonderland to the average shopper, possibly the coolest working environment
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Before I get into the details surrounding her case, I want to interject too briefly state that I have never been inside the Abercrombie & Fitch store, although, I have been in stores similar to it such as (American Eagle & Hollister) which gave me a pretty solid idea of how repulsive & prejudice stores like this are. These types of stores look down on people that are overweight or unattractive. They seek out only good looking people who could be totally unqualified for the job but have enough looks to carry them through. It’s been brought too many people’s attention in the past that Abercrombie only hires good looking people, but when this story came around it was shocking to hear how rude an obscene they could actually be. Refusing to hire someone because of their headscarf is immoral and shows no lack of compassion. Abercrombie should not have been so focused on the appearance of their staff but more focused on providing the best customer service possible, …show more content…
For every ethnicity and every background there is a stereotype. These stereotypes not only dictate whether you find work in America, but how you’re treated as well. Reading the article, “Muslims Report Rising Discrimination at Work,” by Steven Greenhouse, I was baffled to hear that people were actually called “terrorist” or “Osama” by co-workers and even managers. What fascinates me the most about this, is how those people are strong enough to be able to brush past it and continue working at that very same institution. I remember when I was placed in a bit of a stereotype a few years ago myself at a job, I ended up quitting a month later because of it. I was asked by the manager to stay longer after my shift had already ended and I didn’t decline, but the comment he said after that in order to convince me to stay was what got me. While I was getting ready to close my register and leave, he said, “Come on don’t leave, work a couple more hours, I know people in your country don’t make that much money anyway.” Because of my appearance and where I came from he already made an assumption of me whether he really knew me or not. This is one of the first experiences I had with racism and stereotype and why I strongly repent against Abercrombie’ ‘look policy.’ Similar to the case of Samantha Elauf, five years ago back in 2010 a girl named Hani Khan who worked at Abercrombie & Fitch for over four
The plaintiffs, Bosse and Griffin, sued Chili’s for negligence seeking compensatory damages claiming a patron who pursued them following their skipping out on a restaurant bill was acting as agent for Chili’s at the time the patron caused the plaintiff’s car accident and that Chili’s was, therefore, responsible for the crash.
After reading the article, “Why 62,000 Abercrombie & Fitch Employees Are Suing The Company,” there were two different problems that were brought to attention regarding Abercrombie & Fitch’s business ethics. The two problems were the mistreatment of their employees, and how their business marketing strategy is not well developed throughout their company. Abercrombie & Fitch is a company that has always been concerned about their image, which leads us to their, “look policy.” A “look policy” is a policy that relates to a certain look every employee has to follow to be eligible to work there. The company is facing a high-profile lawsuit over its, “look policy” (Greenhouse, 2015). Each employee is forced to purchase the company’s clothes to wear to work, each time a new sales guide comes out (Greenhouse, 2015). This is known as compelled purchases, which is a violation of the state’s labor codes (Greenhouse, 2015). They force the “look policy,” way too strong upon their employees, which developed into a huge problem. The company is facing a high-profile lawsuit
One of Cofer’s point focuses how people misjudge others based on their ethnic appearances, which can lead them to have a lack of opportunities. Cofer explains that during her high school’s Career Day, she was unaware of how to dress professional, therefore she wore her party clothes. Coffer recalls “The way our teacher and classmates looked at us that day in school was just a taste of the culture clash that awaited us in the real world, where prospective employers and men on the street would often misinterpret our
Facts of the Case: In 2008, Samantha Elauf applied for a job at Abercrombie & Fitch, Inc., who as part of their “Look Policy” prohibit the use of caps. Elauf, as part of her religious practice, wore a headscarf to the interview. She was interviewed by assistant manager Heather Cooke, who gave her a score that qualified her to be hired. Cooke, however, was worried that Elauf’s headscarf was against the store’s policy and called her district manager Randall Johnson. She informed Johnson of her belief that Elauf wore her headscarf because of her religion, and Johnson replied that headwear, whether it was religious or not, violated the “Look Policy” of the store.
When employers start believing in stereotypes, racism is now being incorporated into institutions, and thus we see institutional racism. Laws are set in place to protect people from discrimination, but there is nothing set to protect them against institutional racism since it is often difficult to detect. Institutional racism can often be hard to detect because people of color can apply to a job, but the employer may deny them the job because the employer is racist, but there is no way to prove that the employer denied them the job because of the color of their skin. Once ideas of a certain race are spread, stereotypes are created and are then well incorporated into
Up until the age of thirteen, shopping always been torture. Shopping was so bad that I would never buy anything for myself. When I would wear anything other than athletic shorts and a t-shirt, I would have to raid my older sisters’ wardrobe- who just happened to be my size. After losing about twenty pounds in eighth grade, I started to love shopping- much to my parents’ dismay. While trying to find my own personal style, I began to shop at stores similar to Banana Republic and Gap. It soon occurred to me that, although they bear some minor similarities, the difference between Banana Republic and Gap are pronounced.
In many circles of the world, various groups of people distinguish themselves from one another through religion, language, culture, and sometimes gender. People also develop stereotypes about a particular group of people in order to identify them. However, most of the time, these stereotypes hold true for only some members of a group. Sometimes, these stereotypes are just plain misconceptions that do not even apply to the group it claims to. Stereotypes are placed on people because it is a way to easily identify what type of person or ethnicity an individual is. At one point in time, these stereotypes may have been true; however, in today’s modern society, most of these stereotypes are outdated and false, which leads them to turn into misconceptions. Usually, stereotypes are utilized to humiliate and degrade the person or group; they also do not provide any beneficial outcomes. Stereotypes focus on how a particular group acts because of the radical ideas and actions of the few, how a particular group looks, or how that group is physically lacking in some way. These stereotypes often lead to conflicts because the group does not appreciate the way it is being perceived. Seldom are the stereotypes placed on a group of people truthful and accurate. Some hardly even apply to the particular group people it claims to. It is true that how people are perceived has a big impact on how other individuals interact with them; however, people are not perceiving these groups correctly.
In “The man behind Abercrombie and Fitch.” An interview conducted by Benoit Denizet-Lewis displays a glimpse into the life of Mike Jeffries and his views of his company only hiring “good-looking” people and targeting “good-looking” people to wear his clothes. This has been done in order to force his audience to recognize that the issue of acceptance one’s peers and exclusion of a community mentioned by Mike Jeffries, is a result of cultural perceptions and individual self-image. Denizet-Lewis skillfully shows that while Jeffries remarks of not wanting the “not-so-popular” kids to shop in his stores, it poses a question to consumers asking what change in our attitudes will come or if there will be any change at all. Thus comes the issue of how consumers today have a shift in the reasoning behind why one buys clothing and the motivating factors that influence one to buy certain clothing. Denizet-Lewis also demonstrates the different messages that controversial advertisements and statements affect different groups of people and how what they project is really what people desire, though deemed by many people as unacceptable or inappropriate. The author also examines how in the news media, the image has become more important than the message and how images have taken precedent over actual issues and character. As a result of this, various communities have formed by the construct of selling to “beautiful people” and how popular appeal has become an extension of a person.
In our global economy requiring functional and respectful relationships between nations, prejudice and stereotypes can be a destructive force both in the world and in individual societies, especially in diverse ones.
Discrimination continues to run rampant throughout organizations in both the United States and worldwide. The Supreme Court case, Dukes vs. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., dealt with 1.5 million current and former female Wal-Mart employees that claim that they had been a victim of gender discrimination. The ensuing pages will discuss the specific issues that the plaintiffs encountered, followed by suggestions from a human resource manager’s stand point in rectifying adverse impact within the Wal-Mart organization.
How would you feel if you were told you were not good enough for a job based on your skin color? Or how would you feel if you were constantly offended, and bits and pieces of your culture was being twisted into something horrible like a stereotype? Probably really frustrated, right? Well, this is the fate of many African American models, and women of color today in the world of fashion. Racism is rampant in the fashion industry. According to Dalton Conley author of “You May Ask Yourself”, ‘Racism is the belief that members of separate races possess different and unequal traits’. Unfortunately, most of the models who walk runway shows, and who are in high end fashion print advertisements are Caucasian. This causes
Fashion is an outlet people use to express themselves. People anxiously wait to see what the next trends are as seasons pass by. We buy anything that doesn’t break a bank, people buy a $10 shirt just because it’s cheap and they might not even wear it, but it’s all right, since it wasn’t expensive. As harmless and normal as that scenario sounds, the fashion industry has created the harmful concept that is “fast fashion”, in which stores sell an abundance of extremely cheap trendy clothing and “where deliveries are small and often, with stock delivered twice a week, for instant-access fashion.” (Cochrane)
Furthermore, an African-American male model failed to get the job because his looks was not ‘exotic’ enough (Dearden 2015). The discrimination on people based on their skin colour is the one of the major issues in Abercrombie and Fitch. The African-American male models receive unfair treatment because of their skin colour. The culture of racism will happen in the company is due to the influence of their former CEO, Mike Jefferies. In an interview, Mike Jeffries once stated that he only hires good-looking people in his stores because good-looking people will attract other good-looking people (Kaplan 2015).
Nowadays, the fashion industry is such a negative push on teenagers’ standard of beauty that it is now becoming an unsolved dilemma for our society. Firstly, Sarah Murdoch, the representative of Bonds underwear, is of the opinion that the fashion industry encourages “unhealthy body images” (Dunkerley, 2008) that are thought to be unrealistic and unhealthy for most women and girls. Besides, the fact that most designers prefer to choose thin models than bigger size ones (Bolger, 2007) shows us an astonishing phenomenon that there are series of clothes from size 0 to size 4 seen not only in the fashion shows but also even in the sale markets because they think that there will be “stigma attached” when doing something for “plus-size people” (Stevens, 2010). Naomi Crafti, representing Eating Disorders Victoria, thinks that teenagers are becoming obsessed with “the very skinny models on the catwalk” in the fashion shows (Stevens, 2010) which gradually leads to “eating disorders, mental health” and “negative body image in young people” (Stevens, 2010).
The appearance of a person in general is one of the most important causes of stereotypes. People usually tend to stereotype a person from what they see and think. In Brent Staples’s “Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space,” he experienced a certain stereotype from a white woman because of his appearance. He explained, “To her, the youngish black man—a broad six feet two inches with a bread and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket—seemed menacing close” (Staples 343). That white woman labeled Staples as a dangerous person who might hurt her, so she ran away as soon as she could. In other words, people usually define “‘suspicious characters’” as “‘swarthy’ or ‘dark and foreign-looking’” (Heilbroner 372). Moreover, “[m]ixed cultural signals have perpetuated certain stereotypes” (Ortiz Cofer 378). Ortiz Cofer experienced the typical stereotype as a Hispanic woman in the United States. For instance, the Latin women are usually viewed as the “‘hot tamale’” by using the words like “‘sizzling’” or “‘smoldering’” for definitions...