Customers shopping at Abercrombie & Fitch clothing stores last week saw smiling men with slanted eyes positioned next to slogans such as “Wok-N-Bowl - Let the Good Times Roll - Chinese Food & Bowling” and “Wong Brothers Laundry Service - Two Wongs Can Make It White.”
The New Albany, Ohio-based company distributed four T-shirt designs related to Asian culture for $24.50 to cater to young Asian Americans. But Asian Americans across the country say the T-shirts, which have been pulled from 311 stores in 50 states, reinforce racial and ethnic stereotypes.
Officials at Abercrombie & Fitch’s corporate location did not return calls Monday. Abercrombie & Fitch at Meridian Mall in Okemos refused to comment on the issue, but said the shirts were removed from the store last week.
Ryan Abenes, president of the Philippine American Student Society, said he thought Abercrombie & Fitch displayed a lack of sensitivity with the designs.
“It was ridiculous to make shirts like that, those are blatant stereotypes,” the marketing junior said. “There have got to be other ways to make money than making shirts that make fun of a culture.”
Abenes said the T-shirts reminded him of a similar incident in February when fliers promoting the movie “Kung Pow: Enter the Fist,” were distributed on campus. The fliers featured a Chinese restaurant menu with items such as “sweet and sour poodle” and “dog meat.”
“A formal apology would be the least they can do,” he said. “We are supposed to be promoting equality. Why would you want to put down the race? I don’t know if that was them going for a joke.”
Romeo Salvani, co-president of the Asian Pacific American Student Organization, said no formal protest has been scheduled, but members of the organization won’t shop at the store.
“I am not going to support them in any way, shape or form,” the telecommunication senior said. “It’s a big step that they’ve realized they made a mistake, but they need more cultural sensitivity in their business. They have no intelligence toward these issues.”
University of Michigan student Michelle Lin was one of a group of several students who demonstrated their dislike for the T-shirts Friday by stuffing fliers in the pockets of clothing in Briarwood Mall. A petition demanding an apology, diversity training and consulting is circulating, she said.
“They haven’t addressed the issue,” she said. “I wasn’t surprised because Asian culture is usually commodified by clothing stores, but the extent to which they did it was appalling.”
Christine Chen, executive director of the Organization of Chinese Americans in Washington, D.C., an Asian Pacific American civil rights group, said the organization received about 300 e-mails, phone calls and inquiries from Wednesday to Friday about the designs.
“We are used to corporations with diversity initiatives, and if a corporation had a question about a commercial or initiative they were planning to kick off, they bounce the idea off us to get a reaction or input,” she said.
Chen said she spoke with officials at Abercrombie & Fitch who said the designs for the T-shirts were shown to other employees to see if they were offensive.
“That shows there aren’t enough checks and balances in the corporate culture,” she said. “They stated they were doing this to attract Asian Pacific American youth to purchase it, and the reaction they got from students was that it didn’t attract them - it outraged them.”
Economics Professor Charles Ballard said the company may be in danger of losing its customer base because of the incident.
“The guideline is, firms will employ what they think will sell,” he said. “I am surprised someone in the company would think this kind of stuff is good to sell. They have got a particular reputation to maintain. If that reputation is destroyed, a reputation once gone is difficult to get back.”
