By Hera Ashraf
<[email protected]> 

I was at the mall with a couple of my friends one weekend and we passed by an Abercrombie and Fitch store. Immediately the store became the topic of our conversation. We talked about the posters in front of the store with the “perfect-looking” models posing “inappropriately,” the over-priced clothing, the mannequins with six-pack abs and our desire as middle school students and freshmen to own just one sweatshirt from the store. I remember as a freshman that’s all I wanted – a shirt with “A&F” written on it. However, I never got one and as time passed, my interest faded.

Then one of my friends mentioned something about the company getting sued for some racist remarks. When I got home, I did some research to find out whether the accusation was true.

I was surprised at the time to learn about the company’s involvement in various controversies and lawsuits filed against it, mostly concerning discrimination against minorities.

In 2003, according to BBC News, Abercrombie and Fitch was sued by 22 year-old Riam Dean, who was an employee at the store. She claimed that the store bullied her and made her work in the storage room because her prosthetic arm didn’t fit the “Look policy.” She ended up winning her case in 2004.

In the same year, the California Labor Commissions sued the company for requiring its employees to buy and wear its clothes while working, according to CBS News. The labor commission officers alleged that the company’s “Appearance/Look policy” was enforced in a way that required the employees to buy Abercrombie and Fitch clothes while working. Although Abercrombie and Fitch denies that it required employees to purchase its clothes, it agreed to modify the “Appearance/Look policy” and reimbursed the employees for all the apparel they bought.

Wait, it gets worse. According to the New York Post, in 2008, an African-American woman filed a $1 million lawsuit against Abercrombie and Fitch because of racial discrimination. She claimed that her manager fired her because she was black and had blonde highlights, which the company thought was “unnatural” and didn’t fit the “look policy.” How ironic, considering that the owner of Abercrombie and Fitch dyes his hair blonde as well.

A similar story occurred in Tulsa, OK. According to MSNBC.com, a Muslim teen girl accused the manager of a local Abercrombie and Fitch store of not hiring her because her head scarf didn’t fit the “chain’s image.” The store had no comment on the violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which states that employers must reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious practices. But Abercrombie and Fitch isn’t the only store that has been deep in controversies and lawsuits. Its sister company, Hollister, has also faced many similar charges.

According to the St. Louis Business Journal, just last year, an employee at Hollister sued the store for firing her because she refused to wear a shorter skirt. The employee said that she tried to tell her manager that she couldn’t wear the short skirt because of her religion, but instead of understanding, the manager fired her. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed the case on behalf of the employee, terminating an employee because her religion requires modest dressing is “unlawful discrimination.” Hollister decided to stick its head in sand and avoided to comment on the case. The company did a great job of avoiding publicity of all these controversial lawsuits. Had my friend not mentioned it to me, I would have never known of all these events.

I’m surprised that in an era of open-mindedness, the media failed to portray the stories of these young people who were humiliated and dehumanized by a popular brand. We have an African-American president leading our country, but numerous teens are being discriminated against in our local malls.

Everyone recognizes the name and symbol of the company but no one knows the dark stories behind it. The company is lucky that the media hasn’t bothered to reveal all of its dehumanizing actions. Now I know where not to go when I’m looking for a job.