Abercrombie & Fitch

brothersinarm · Post by **brothersinarm** » 2003-06-19 01:33am

I know that this is "old" news but I haven't had the opportunity to discuss it with anyone, and I couldn't find a post here on this so I thought I'd just to create one. I was wondering what everyone's opinion was on "china" theme clothing they released,(a few years?months? back). Personally I only found out this recently and was shocked. I mean the "kiss me I'm Irish" shirts are ok since Irish people sport them, but this I couldn't believe. It's obvious caricatures, and very crudly drawn at that. Here's the article that I was reading that informed me on this issue. It's writting to be funny, and still accomplish the task of putting down the designers.

T-SHIRTS MAKE NO SENSE, EARN NO CENTS

Did you hear the story of Abercrombie & Fitch, the clothing
company that has 311 stores in America, $1.3 billion in
annual sales, and 30 nincompoops in its design department?

Those are conservative estimates -- The company may have as
many as 3,000 nincompoops. It's hard to tell, frankly,
because no one keeps track of such statistics, not even the
U.S. Department of Mental Health.

Stock market analysts are no good either. They offer all
kinds of detailed information about each company, but never
give us the most valuable statistic: nincompoop-to-genius
ratio. It could have saved many of us from that disaster
known as Enron.

We'll never know if any of Abercrombie's designers are
geniuses, but given their recent performance, we can be
certain that many of them would have trouble voting in
Florida. Still, they must have congratulated themselves,
perhaps threw a party, after designing the company's
stylish new line of let's-offend-all-the-Asians T-shirts.

Abercrombie, which markets clothes to college students,
had previously offended several other groups and didn't want
America's growing Asian population to feel left out. So the
company produced T-shirts depicting caricatures of Asians
with slanted eyes and conical hats, expecting the garments
to be quite popular, and not just at Klan rallies.

Following protests from Asian Americans, the $25 T-shirts
were yanked off the market, leaving me to wonder what the
designers were thinking. Or drinking.

Did they really believe they could get away with such
depictions, especially in the politically correct 21st
century, when people are so easily offended? Why, just the
other day, a car salesman took offense when a customer asked
if a car was USED. "It's not a used car," he said. "It's a
pre-owned car!"

Yes, and Tom Cruise isn't divorced. He's pre-married.

And don't you dare call me dark-skinned. I'm not
dark-skinned; I'm just pre-tanned.

To confirm the T-shirts' offensiveness, perhaps we should
discuss them with an Abercrombie designer and an Asian man.
The first T-shirt shows an Asian pulling a rickshaw with the
words "Rick Shaw's Hoagies & Grinders. Order by the foot.
Good meat. Quick feet."

Designer: "This portrays Asians very positively, because it
shows they have good meat and quick feet."

Asian man: "Quick feet that are about to kick your meat!
This is offensive. Few of us pull rickshaws, few of us wear
conical hats, and few of us like hoagies."

The second T-shirt shows two Asian men at "Wong Brothers
Laundry Service" with the slogan "Two Wongs Can Make it
White."

Designer: "This is also positive, because it shows that
Asians can do some things rather well, especially laundry!"

Asian: "Quick feet! Don't forget my quick feet! If two Wongs
can make it white, how many whites can make it wong? This
T-shirt makes fun of how we speak. It is very wong. I mean,
wrong."

The third T-shirt shows an Asian man bowling with the words
"Wok-N-Bowl -- Let the Good Times Roll -- Chinese Food &
Bowling."

Designer: "This is also positive, showing how much fun you
can have at a bowling alley in Chinatown."

Asian: "This T-shirt teases us, because there is no Chinese
food at bowling alleys. I tried to order some once, but the
manager said all he could serve me was hot dogs. I was so
offended. Just because I'm Asian, he thinks I eat dogs!"

Here's the website http://www.melvindurai.com/shirts.htm

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-06-19 01:36am

I would be interested to see a picture. All of my Asian (or, as they call themselves, yellow) friends would probably wear them.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-06-19 01:39am

They were pretty derogatory. I doubt they were intentionally meant to be mean though. But they were rather offensive, especially playing on stereotypes.

While I don't particularly feel great hatred toward A&F, I feel it was a rather bad mistake and bad judgement on the part of the company.

I wonder how these things even got released. The design process must be pretty lax if nobody thought these things would create a stir.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-06-19 01:42am

Howedar wrote:I would be interested to see a picture. All of my Asian (or, as they call themselves, yellow) friends would probably wear them.

http://www.hardboiled.org/5.5/55-08-af.html
http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/news/ ... etail.html

The pictures are a bit blurry, but you can still make them out.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-06-19 01:44am

The hell of it is, they aren't even funny.

brothersinarm · Post by **brothersinarm** » 2003-06-19 01:47am

I don't know if this is confirmed but supposed they don't use minorities in their catalogue. And a search through their website reveals no minorities. Fortunately I never buy their clothing anyways. Their clothing line is often portrayed with overly sexual images. They claim their catalogue, which has semi nude models, are not for children and teens, but they seem to constantly target their age group. Personally I don't like Abercromie, and this certainly doesn't make me want to go into their store.

Also from what I've heard Abercromie has made clothing line which insults many types of people. They claim that because they insult everyone, its ok to include asians. Now when did making fun of people became ok? It's something that I would expect from an elementary kid, not clothing designers.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-06-19 01:48am

I don't really see the big deal, but I also think white trash jokes are funny. I think its in poor taste, but I wouldn't boycott the manufacturer for it.

IF, that is, they were funny. But they aren't. Burn in hell, you A&F bastards.

brothersinarm · Post by **brothersinarm** » 2003-06-19 01:48am

The hell of it is, they aren't even funny.

No, I certainly didn't find any of it funny. It's not even original.

brothersinarm · Post by **brothersinarm** » 2003-06-19 01:51am

I don't find white trash jokes funny, unless directed towards racist, kkk, and the likes. I feel sorry for the poor, and besides it's not the poor people's fault. (well at least not all of them).

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-06-19 01:52am

Redneck jokes, too. And other white jokes. If a joke is funny, its funny. Funny jokes are good, unfunny jokes are bad. I'm afraid thats about as deep as my thoughts go on the subject.

You may all proceed to verbally bash me for daring to have an opinion on the subject while being white.

brothersinarm · Post by **brothersinarm** » 2003-06-19 01:53am

Nah, I would never dream of bashing an unarmed person!.

brothersinarm · Post by **brothersinarm** » 2003-06-19 01:54am

oh look...I have two stars! yeah!

Darth Gojira · Post by **Darth Gojira** » 2003-06-19 07:37am

I remember that the class asshole wore Ambercrappy and Bitch and flaunted it, saying how "cool" he was wasting $40 on a T-shirt. The sad thing is, if I mention it, he'd probably say "So what?" if I pointed out the "unintentionally" offensive comments. I should come over when he's at one of his "legendary" parties and shove my souviner Louisville slugger up his ass. Not that I am bitter.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2003-06-19 08:07am

whatever. you can go to old navy and buy shirts and i guarantee that every one that happens to be bar related has an Irish name on it. I have one too. It has Micky Doyle's Pub or something printed on it. Am I offended? no. Unless the shirts say "Die you (insert stereotype here) (insert ethnicity/group here) scumbag cockmonkey!" it doesn't really bother me that much.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-06-19 02:09pm

I found one or two of the shirts offensive, but otherwise I didn't care.