Why I Hate Abercrombie and Fitch

Dwight McBride concludes in “Why I Hate Abercrombie and Fitch” that he, in fact, hates Abercrombie and Fitch due to the company’s discriminatory hiring and advertisement practices.

McBride begins the chapter by stating how he noticed that the most frequent wearers of Abercrombie are white males. He also adds that he noticed this while at the gay spots that he visited frequently. He then attempts to explain the causes of this trend for the remainder of the chapter. He explains that Abercrombie began as an outdoor clothing store for the upper class and concludes that it now promotes its product to upper middle class white college students. He concludes that Abercrombie is selling more of a lifestyle than clothing. They do this in part through the use of their “Look Book.” This book explains the way in which their employees must appear in order to be hired and stay hired. The book doesn’t allow for many of the popular hairstyles for African Americans and discriminates against non-whites according to McBride. Abercrombie also releases the A&F Quarterly to advertise their clothing. According the McBride, however, the magazine is full of whiteness and doesn’t fairly represent those of color. He also states how employees of color were forced to work in the stockroom rather than in the store in one situation. There are many other practices that are mentioned that promote a white image. Managers are even required to send pictures of their employees to headquarters and to give their employees grades based on how good-looking they are. McBride states that other clothing companies have taken big steps to sell their clothing equally to everyone while Abercrombie has not. McBride concludes by stating that Abercrombie thrives on the racist society we have today and states a lot about race relations in the United States.

Does McBride’s position affect the argument he poses in any way? I am not sure of this, but it seems as if Dwight McBride is a black gay man. I say this due to the fact that he mentions that he frequently visits gay bars and the tone of his writing. If, in fact, McBride is black, his argument may be slightly biased due to the fact that he belongs to the group being discriminated against in this situation. However, this does not change the facts that McBride has presented. It seems like Abercrombie certainly does promote whiteness through the use of the publication of A&F Quarterly. I am only stating that there may be another side to the argument that we haven’t been exposed to.

I was very interested in the reading and was quite surprised by some of the hiring practices of Abercrombie. I couldn’t believe some of the rules that were written in the “Look Book.” It seems wrong that one can hire based on the way someone looks or an employee may get fired for not “looking Abercrombie.” To me this is ridiculous and it made me think of Abercrombie in a different way. Not that I thought too much of them in the first place.