By Andrew Chin
April 23, 2002
After thousands of Asian American university students and the
Organization of Chinese Americans raised their voices last week, forcing Abercrombie and Fitch to
recall a new line of T-shirts featuring Asian cartoon characters, this is what
Thomas Lennox, the company's senior public relations official had to say:
It's not, and never has been, our intention to offend anyone. These
graphic T-shirts were designed with the sole purpose of adding humor and levity
to our fashion line.
As "damage control" press conferences go in the corporate world,
you will not find a more artful example of evasion and misdirection. The
media accepted Lennox's statement without further questioning, even though:
- No one ever accused Abercrombie and Fitch of intending to offend
Asian Americans. The purpose of the protests was to call the company's
attention to the fact that the T-shirts were offensive, because it was
obvious that nobody in authority at the company knew that they were.
- No
one ever suggested that the T-shirts were designed in a spirit other than of
humor and levity. But the caricatures were deliberately chosen with
historical antecedents in mind. If most Asian Americans cannot look
back on those early stereotypical images and laugh, it is because we
recognize the discriminatory effects of racial stereotyping as a persisting
problem, and not as an amusingly quaint fashion of a bygone era.
When viewed in light of Lennox's statement, Abercrombie's recall of the
T-shirts does not constitute an apology. Abercrombie's only regret is that
Asian Americans have mobilized, with the effect that the company would now find
it unprofitable to continue marketing the T-shirts.
Some
activists are continuing to seek a pledge from Abercrombie that such designs
won't be repeated. But this proposal only calls for the company to make
what has already been shown to be a sound business decision.
Instead, Abercrombie should be held responsible for the false and misleading
message it has sent the public: that it's harmless fun to portray Asian
Americans as coolies, laundrymen and rickshaw drivers, because everyone knows
better and there no longer exist any problems of racial discrimination,
harassment and violence based on the misconception that Asian Americans are
exotic foreigners.
Federal Trade Commission rules require a business who engages in misleading
advertising to spend 25 percent of its advertising budget on corrective
advertising. By analogy, activists should demand that Abercrombie dedicate
one-fourth of the costs it incurred in designing, manufacturing, distributing,
and marketing the T-shirts to educate its own employees and the general public
regarding historical and continuing racial discrimination against Asian
Americans.
Even without a genuine apology and corrective measures from Abercrombie, the
company's decision to recall the T-shirts may be viewed as a small victory for
Asian American activism. Activists should extend on this gain, keeping in
mind that the Abercrombie T-shirt fiasco was not an isolated incident, but is
simply a visible manifestation of our community's general experience of
marginalization by the dominant culture.
The campaign continues at BoycottAF.com
