The next time you walk into an Abercrombie and Fitch store in search of the perfect “all-American” outfit, think twice. The clothing company recently perpetrated a national bias with a line of t-shirts boasting images offensive to people of Chinese, Polynesian, Asian, and Buddhist descent. Briefly describing the shirts: the first has two Chinese men on the front, with the slogan “Wong Brothers Laundry -Two Wongs Can Make It White.” The second has an inaccurate picture of Buddha saying “Buddha Bash – Get Your Buddha on the Floor.” A Chinese man holding a pizza with the motto “Pizza Dojo – Eat in or Wok Out” was printed on the third shirt. The fourth declares “Tiki Golf: Mini Golf and Pub – A Hole in One Slants the Fun,” while the fifth has a Chinese male and the saying “Wok-N-Bowl: Chinese Food and Bowling.”
The five t-shirts have sparked emotional responses, with many groups campaigning to boycott Abercrombie and Fitch. Company spokesman, Hampton Carney, responded with, “We personally thought Asians would love this t-shirt. We’re very, very, very sorry,” nonetheless pointing out that several Asian customers have bought the shirts, finding them to be entertaining and not offensive. Less than forty-eight hours after the t-shirts were released onto the clothing company’s website, more than seventy-five students at Stanford University in California had gathered in its Okada House, themed after the culture of Asian-Americans. Most of those gathered were of the same racial backgrounds as those being depicted in the t-shirts, with senior B.J. Lee – who had first found them on the website – naming them a “slap in the face to the Asian-American communities.” After the t-shirts’ discovery, Lee sent an email to student groups around Stanford’s campus, provoking a nationwide spread of the incident and subsequent boycotts of the clothing line.
Abercrombie finally pulled all but one of its controversial t-shirts off of the store’s shelves last Thursday. Over the weekend, some of the controversial shirts were auctioned on Ebay, an online auction site, with bids reaching as high as $249. When Ebay representatives learned about the reasons for the removal of the shirts from Abercrombie and Fitch stores, they closed auctions that were selling the offensive shirts. Ebay does not permit offensive material to be sold on its website.
Organizations and student groups are still active on campuses nationwide in relation to the issue. Despite the fact that the t-shirts have been pulled, their images still provoke many insults to the racial/religious communities that have been targeted. Many of these groups name their initial focus to be the formulation of a list of demands and mission statement for the company. In particular, the groups wish to convey the message that making fun of anyone’s culture, racial group, profession, or religion and using it for commercialization is ethically irresponsible and unacceptable.
This is not the first time that Abercrombie and Fitch has caught flak for its products. Last year, the company’s ads showcasing young, almost nude, women in sexually suggestive poses provoked rallying from women’s organizations and politicians. Its previous targets have included foreign waitresses, taxi drivers, and Britains, none of which were met with outright acceptance.
The Organization of Chinese Americans has issued a statement in regards to the recently pulled t-shirts, stating it is, “outraged that the shirts would display demeaning and degrading stereotypical Asian images and word plays.” They went on to say, “These racist images were meant to be a parody and the Asian Pacific American community takes offense that a corporation would use common stereotypes for cheap laughs and profit.”
While such images were intended as “ a parody,” and many similar instances can be found in American pop culture, college campuses are not taking the issue lightly. Many Asian-American groups are still organizing protests against Abercrombie and Fitch, even after the company pulled the t-shirts, in order to convey that they can’t get away with such biased messaging in their products. As put so well by Stanford sophomore Bryan Kim, “Incidents of insensitivity or outright racism and intolerance affects all communities.”