Abercrombie shirts spark controversy, protests
NATIONAL: Officials from the
clothing company apologized
for the T-shirts, saying they
didn’t intend any bias or harm
A controversial new line of Aber
crombie & Fitch T-shirts bearing
stereotypical slogans and images of
Asian Americans has incited a pub
lic outcry from Asian American
communities on college campuses
nationwide.
The T-shirts depict caricatures
with slanted eyes, conical hats and
slogans such as “Wong Brothers
Laundry Service: Two Wongs
Can Make It White.” Another j
features an image of the Bud- A
dha along with the slogan,
“Buddha Bash — Get Jjjlj
Your Buddha On the l||
Floor.”
The shirts have met
with protest by Asian
American student organizations
at schools from San Francisco to
Boston, even after the T-shirts were
pulled from store shelves and the
company’s Web site Thursday after
Abercrombie received a flood of
complaints.
On Thursday, the San Jose Mer
cury News reported that Abercrom
bie & Fitch received about 60 tele
phone complaints Wednesday, many
of them from Stanford students.
Later that day, the company an
nounced it would pull the T-shirts
from all of its 300-plus stores — just
one week after they first went on
sale. All but one T-shirt have been
pulled from the Web site.
Protesters say the images perpet
uate stereotypes and racist depic
tions of Asians. National Asian ad
vocacy groups as well as college
students responded soon after the
first shirts arrived on the shelves
last week, flooding Abercrombie &
Fitch with angry calls and boy
cotting some West Coast stores.
On Thursday more than 20 Stan
ford students participated in a rally
in front of the Abercrombie & Fitch
store in San Francfisco, organized
by the Chinatown Community De
velopment Center. About 200 peo
ple were present.
Coordinated efforts among Asian
student groups from several col
leges resulted in protests Saturday
in front of company stores in Cam
bridge, Mass., San Francisco, Provi
dence, R.I., and Ohio, where the
company is based.
An Asian student group at Co
lumbia University Law School
spearheaded a national boycott of
Abercrombie last weekend and
held a drive to collect company
products to return.
Though the company already
has recalled the shirts and apolo
gized to the public, many Asian
American groups plan to contin
ue protests.
Bethany Li, a junior majoring in
history at Amherst College in Mass
achusetts, has been organizing co
ordinated protests in San Francis
co, Ohio and Boston through
NAASCon, the National Asian
American Students Conference.
NAASCon kicked off its Nation
al Student Week of Action on Sat
urday and is planning rallies for the
rest of this week in cities across the
country. The organization original
ly had planned a National Student
Day of Action, but expanded it to a
week and planned rallies in re
sponse to the shirts.
When Li and her organization
first learned of the shirts, they were
shocked, she said.
“Of course, the immediate reac
tion was outrage,” she
said. “What
was Abercrombie thinking?”
Li said she hopes the National
Student Week of Action will pro
mote awareness and encourage of
fended consumers to boycott the of
fending retailer.
Abercrombie & Fitch, however,
has maintained that the shirt de
signs were not meant to be taken se
riously.
In an official statement, Aber
crombie & Fitch responded to the
situation by saying, “It is not and
never has been our intention to of
fend anyone.”
Abercrombie spokesman
Hampton Carney said the logo T
shirts were designed with “the
sole purpose of adding humor
and levity to our fashion line,”
and added that other shirts also
poke fun at taxi drivers, Britons
and foreign waitresses.
“We thought everyone would
love them, especially the Asian
community,” he told Reuters.
Carney also told the Associated
Press that the company is “very,
very, very sorry.”
The controversy has created a
demand for the T-shirts among
some consumers. Though no
longer available in stores, the
shirts have since resurfaced on
ebay.com, where recent bids have
exceeded $200.
This is not the first time that the
marketing of Abercrombie & Fitch,
a casual clothing store, has been
widely criticized. Catalogues fea
turing semi-nude models have also
sparked controversy. And in 1998,
a catalog spread featuring alcoholic
drink recipes drew the ire of Moth
ers Against Drunk Driving. Just a
few months ago, the company
came under criticism from Christ
ian and women’s rights groups for
featuring overly suggestive poses
in its advertisements.
— From U-WIREreports
CAMPUS: APASU members
plan to discuss the issue
attheir opening ceremony
for Asian History Month
Students at many major univer
sities are voicing their disap
proval of a new line of Aber
crombie & Fitch T-shirts with
• stereotypical Asian themes. At
the University of California
at Berkeley, almost 1,000
students protested the
jjl company and are also
sending a petition urging
students to call the com
pany and voice their
concerns.
k co
Jk “A lot of action is being
flk taken,” Berkeley Asian
dHgk American Association
President Vincent Chang
But student reaction
|||k here at the University
fill has been quiet so far.
Ill Members of the
® University’s Asian
IflP Pacific American
Student Union are
kicking off the Asian
History Month opening cer
emony at 4 p.m. Friday in the
EMU Amphitheater. A combina
tion of planning these events and
many members of APASU not
finding out about the controver
sy until late last week or early
this week led to their delayed re
sponse, according to APASU his
torian Ma Vang.
She said APASU representa
tives will inform the audience at
the end of the ceremony about
the situation and what can be
done to help. From there, stu
dents are marching down Thir
teenth Street in celebration of
Asian History Month. Vang said
they plan to wear T-shirts with
the Abercrombie & Fitch initials
crossed out on the front of
the shirt.
They are also handing out
fliers about the situation and
how they think the company has
discriminated against Asians,
APASU Co-Director Jeanice
Chieng said.
“We will be writing letters ask
ing for people to support our
cause,” Chieng said.
Washington State University
Asian Pacific American Student
Coalition co-chairman Tim Yep
said his group has similarly fo
cused its energy more this month
on a celebration of Asian Pacific
American Heritage Month. Al
though they did not promote stu
dents to take action, he said they
made sure Asian students were
kept aware.
“There was a message sent out
to Asian students communicat
ing what others are doing,” he
said. Yep said this problem is
nothing new, and many students
stopped supporting the store
long before this became an issue.
“A lot of people feel it’s stupid
and they’ve never supported
Abercrombie & Fitch in the
past,” he said. “Their ads cater to
mainstream consumers versus
being sensitive to particular cul
tures,” he said.
Representatives from the Eu
gene’s Valley River Center store
referred all questions — includ
ing if they even carried the shirts
— to the Abercrombie & Fitch
customer service office, which
sent calls to the company’s public
relations office. No one in the
public relations department was
available for comment. But a few
students have been seen on cam
pus wearing the shirts.
— Robin Weber
University of Oregon
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4:00-6:00 PM Rogue Room, EMU
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8:00 PM Willamette Room 100
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You don't get it. I already have an interview
with the company. I wish I were psychic so
I'd know what to exp<
Well, E.D.G.E. worksh
feature real recruiters who c
Ah ha! All I have to do is "psyche
myself up to go to the
\ Career Center, right?
If the workshops don't fit
in your schedule, make an
appointment with
a counselor!