Clothing Chain Accused of Discrimination. So it seems Abercrombie & Fitch, the clothing brand that appeals to annoying frat boys, hires people that can relate to such individuals. What a surprise! Yeah, I’m sure it’s discrimination under the law, but check this out:
“If you look at a store like Banana Republic,” Mr. Gonzalez said, “there’s a huge difference. Banana Republic has almost all minorities working there.”
Go shop at Banana Republic then!
Godless disagrees:
Hmmmm. This might be one of those situations where there really *is* discrimination going on, of the invidious kind.
It’s one thing to deny people jobs on the basis of their lack of competence (e.g. in science, writing, etc.), but another to do so on the basis of their skin tone. Are the applicants really that much worse at sales?
Some might contend that Abercrombie has a legitimate business interest in promoting the white aesthetic, even if the minority applicants *are* just as competent at sales. But if that’s legitimate then I think that (say) a boycott by minorities and sympathetic whites would be a perfectly legitimate capitalist response. Abercrombie would have to weigh the costs and benefits and respond appropriately. Right?
In this case I think they’ll respond to consumer pressure and refrain from locking non-whites out of sales positions. If they could make more money by keeping whites-only in sales, they could do that too, but I think that’s unlikely b/c it’s bad publicity and they’ll lose customers.
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