Posted by Sam Richards
This is rather troubling story and all the worse because this young woman was hired with the agreement that she would be wearing her head scarf while at work. While we haven’t heard from the company spokespeople, aside from the letter from which they quoted in the story, it doesn’t seem as though this fired employee was not doing her job. Hmm…
In today’s society, we hear about discriminatory acts in the business world so often, it is just sad. But where do we draw the line? How can we tell the difference from an incident that was clearly a discriminatory act, or an incident in which the company’s policy was just not followed through? I am actually not surprised that this incident happened under the Abercrombie and Fitch company. I currently work at Abercrombie and Fitch, and they have a strict “look policy” that you have to abide by. They tell you all this before you are hired, right down to how the girls should wear their makeup and what colors their nails to be. You are even given a pamphlet to read regarding their look policy. We have to remember that Abercrombie and Fitch is a business. A business that tries to make profit based on their outward appearance. So they hire what they consider are people that meet the standards that they set. They have a certain style that they want to portray to the public, which is why they tell you to look and dress a specific way. I can’t really completely agree that this was a discriminatory act. The funny thing is that in this pamphlet it states how the Abercrombie and Fitch company does not discriminate against race, religion etc. I can’t really completely agree that this was a discriminatory act, although it wasn’t right. I don’t believe that it was completely discriminatory because we all know that this is how there business works. I think the major thing wrong here is that they were aware that she would be wearing the hijab. She made sure she told them about it. The company told her that iw would be okay as long as it was certain colors. She complied with what they told her, and still they fired her. This gives her enough reason to be upset, and does not set a good image for Abercrombie and Fitch. If they knew from the beginning that the hijab would result into a problem for there so called “look” , they should not have hired her in the first place, and gave her false expectations. Many stores have a certain “look” that you have to abide to. It’s all for the sake of business. Sadly, this poor girl got the short end of the stick, and was given false expectations. Now, this doesn’t mean that Abercrombie and Fitch hasn’t had instances where they are racist or blatantly discriminatory. Because, I, myself have witnessed it. I just don’t think that in this particular case, it should be regarded as so. It was wrong yes, but discriminatory. I am just not sure. This brings me back to my first question. How do we know for sure when an incident was discriminatory or not? Where do we draw the line?
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This article is pretty outrageous but I’m not surprised at what happened. I feel that they shouldn’t have hired her in the first place. One of my friend works at Abercrombie and Fitch and he was telling me about the look policy the employees have to follow. I believe that it is okay for a company to have a look policy but in this case they shouldn’t have hired the woman if she was wearing a scarf. They should have told her that she doesn’t fit the look policy therefore they cannot be given the job. A lawsuit could be filed then too. I guess they hired her to be on the safe side but surprisingly they fired her for the scarf. They even gave her a color code for her head scarf which she followed up with but they still fired her for the fact that she wears a scarf. This is pretty ridiculous. What is even more surprising that corporate fired her and not the local manager. It is pretty weird that the district manager came in to fire her. This reminds me of a similar discriminating case against Disney. A Sikh man was rejected for a job at Disney because “he did not fit the Disney image” and he had “a look problem”. Sikhism is a religion started in India and requires its followers to wear turbans. So I guess it is a similar case. The woman was fired for wearing a scarf and this man wasn’t even given a job at Disney just because he was following his religion, something he has lived with all his life. It is also hypocritical for Disney to make millions of dollars promoting cartoon characters that wear turbans and simultaneously reject the right of an employee to wear a turban in accordance with his faith. Abercrombie probably wants to maximize its profits by having their employees follow a specific look policy but at the same time people of different races and religions shop at Abercrombie. After looking at this case, they are obviously going to lose customers because they have clearly violated the rights to freedom of religion. I just believe that everyone should have to right to follow any faith they want and shouldn’t be discriminated against. It is pretty messed up to see what the world is coming to. Clearly huge companies like Abercrombie and Disney are taking a step backwards in our society.
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This video reminded me a lot of another video that Sam showed earlier in the semester during class. It had to do with customers' reactions to a hired actor making very racist comments to an Islamic woman trying to purchase something at a deli (or something of the sort). Although they're two completely different situations, both videos give insight into areas of some Americans' mindsets about middle-easterners in our country. I just don't understand why some people continuously categorize middle-easterners as 'terrorists' based on the clothing they wear, or the dialect with which they speak. Abercrombie and Fitch obviously has a re-occurring problem within their organization in dealing with these misconceptions, as the video stated that this wasn't the first time the company has been in a legal dispute having to do with the headdresses of its employees. The fact that they have been sued before for virtually the same thing just goes to show that they haven't learned their lesson and they deserve to have to deal with these legal problems all over again. It's one thing for a single person to represent close-mindedness, but what does it say when it's coming from inside the company itself, as the video explained the decision to fire her came from corporate headquarters.
When do we as customers stand up and say, “Enough is enough?” Why do we continue to purchase shirts, pants, etc. from a company that has a past, and a present for that matter in discriminating against our fellow Americans? It doesn’t make sense to me. In order to really send a message to Abercrombie and Fitch I feel like we, as consumers are going to have to step up and show this company that we’re not going to let this take place anymore. I’m glad that this issue wasn’t just swept under and that FOX News decided to cover the story. In my opinion, this video is as frightening as it is shocking, I mean, the girl refused to have her face shown because she has had death threats over the incident. For people to be sending her death threats is just downright disgusting, she didn’t do anything to deserve the way she’s being treated. It doesn’t make sense to me that this girl was fired for a reason that was not only completely unfair to her, but that people would be threatening her life because of it. If I was in her position, I would be doing the exact same thing. Not only is this a testament to the closed-mindedness of some people in our society, but it is discrimination in its purest form. The only thing we can do is hope that her fight against Abercrombie and Fitch causes them to change their ways, and opens some eyes within our society.
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I think that this is a terrible thing. Abercrombie and Fitch as well as Hollister does have some strict standards with their look policy. For example, the employees are supposed to wear their flip flops all year round. However, in my LER 201 class we learned about a case where a worker at Domino's had facial hair and they fired him because he would not shave it and Domino's had a clean shaven face policy. The judge sided with Domino's and stated that they had the right to tell their employees how they want them to look because they are a representation of the company. I think that this and the Domino's example are just plain wrong. Looks aren't everything. The attitudes of the employees count more than the look.
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I think that this is a horrible story. The girl should have realized that there would be a problem when she was told that there were only certain colors allowed to be worn. The Abercrombie “look policy” has been a problem in the past. This young female was wearing her hijab because it is a religious practice and I think that was pretty obvious when the company was going to hire her. Quiet honestly if this was going to be a problem the whole time they just should not have hired her. Abercrombie and Fitch tries to be an “all American” company but what that don’t realize is that as time increases America is getting more and more diverse and less and less white. It is sad how they are still a successful company and can behave in a racist manner…Feb19
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