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Legal And Ethical Issues

The legal and ethical issues in the Abercrombie and Fitch case of hiring practices based on looks are very similar. The issue (or allegation) is simple. Abercrombie and Fitch is hiring young people based on their looks and their race. Normally I would say both of these issues are very hard to resolve due to lack of sufficient evidence, no true grounds of support, and basically if no one really flat out said it just all becomes speculation in which a judge or jury needs to be swayed on the lawyers’ thought process on the defendant’s thought process (which is very difficult to do). Well Abercrombie and Fitch has pretty much done the work for everyone. Abercrombie and Fitch does not care to have a racially diverse staff nor does it care for unattractive people to be a part of their team.

            Looks: Abercrombie and Fitch has an “Appearance Policy” that it regulates very closely. This policy requires that all of the brand’s representative reflect the “A&F Look”. Now this look is managed by the managers from the region, district, and national office. Also, the stores must submit pictures of the Brand Representatives who fit the “A&F Look” to the corporate office once every quarter. The corporate office then picks out fifteen pictures from the pile and holds them up as the models each store should model themselves after by distributing this pictures throughout all of their stores worldwide. Apparently these pictures are young white people (Carroll and Buchholtz, 2006, p. 714). If you ever have or decide to visit an Abercrombie and Fitch store you will quickly understand what the “A&F Look” really is. Aside from the racial value, you must be good looking, and specific to Abercrombie and Fitch’s standards. As reported on CBS News by Leung (2004) “It’s dominated by Caucasian, football-looking, blonde-hair, blue-eyed males; skinny, tall” (para. 5).

One example is brought about from Great Britain. There was a case about a young girl, Rian Dean, who worked in the front visible side of Abercrombie and Fitch. What was her great faux pa in the work place the ultimately got her demoted you may ask?  Well the answer is that “Rian Dean has a prosthetic arm, which management claims violated Abercrombie’s ‘looks policy’” (Sachteleben, 2009, para. 1). Well this must be an isolated case right? Wrong. “A Christian woman from Missouri sued the company in 2007, saying that she was fired from one of its Hollister brand stores because her religious beliefs forbid her to wear pants or a short skirt” (Nasaw, 2009, para. 10). Again Abercrombie and Fitch gets tagged for unfair work conditions due to its ever so infamous “looks policy”.

Another issue that has gotten much press lately as reported by Mair (2010) is the firing of a Muslim girl for wearing a hijab (religious headscarf) to work. Initially the young woman was told as long as the headscarf matched the color scheme and brand identity of Abercrombie and Fitch then it would be acceptable. After some time a district manager came to visit the store and saw the young woman wearing the headscarf and immediately took action. The young lady was informed that the “look policy” did not allow employees to wear things on their heads such as; headscarves, and hats. Without further argument she was immediately sent home. After a conversation with her supervisor, explaining to her boss that she could not remove the headscarf due to religious reasons, she was fired. Abercrombie and Fitch continues to grotesquely treat its employees and is setting a terrible image for itself as it tries to perfect the image of its employees.

            Race: In addition to the horrendous “looks policy” is the racial issues that Abercrombie is dealing with. The case of the Muslim girl may fall into both these categories. But the company is still well distinctive in the two fields of issues. As stated in Carroll and Buchholtz (2006) a Filipino-American graduate student tried to apply for a position at store that he had worked for previously but was rejected because there were already too many Filipinos working there, or else he’d be able to get the job (p.714). Another case involves a lawsuit against the corporation because a young woman’s application was denied allegedly because she was African-American (Carroll and Buchholtz, 2006, p. 714).

Not only has Abercrombie and Fitch acted racist in its company hiring practices, but also has done so in its slogans, and clothing wears. One example is in April of 2002 “Abercrombie & Fitch sold a shirt that featured the slogan “Wong Brothers Laundry Service—Two Wongs Can Make It White” with smiling figures in conical straw hats, a depiction of early Chinese immigrants.” (Brown, 2005, para. 8). This is probably as ridiculous as it can get, but then again only time will tell. Someone had to stand up and speak out against this heavily racist clothing line and thankfully a group of people did. After protesting and boycotts from Asian-American students from Stanford University Abercrombie and Fitch finally decided to discontinue the clothing items and apologized for its disrespect (Brown, 2005, para. 8).

Abercrombie and Fitch has had some legal issue with groups all across the board. From organizations such as; CAIR (Mair, 2010), to the NAACP, The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, (Carroll and Buchholtz, 2006, p. 714). Abercrombie and Fitch has offended or discriminated against someone from almost every race. There are way too many of these lawsuits, allegations, and accusations to ignore and to give Abercrombie and Fitch the benefit of the doubt. Furthermore, these lawsuits also do not come very cheap. For example in January of 2005, “A $40 million settlement had been reached in the discrimination class action lawsuit filed on behalf of all women and all African Americans, Asian Americans and Latinos who either applied for a job at an Abercrombie store” (Brown, 2005, para. 10).

Part 2 & 3

http://socyberty.com/issues/hiring-on-the-basis-of-looks-abercrombie-fitch-case-study-part-ii/

http://socyberty.com/issues/hiring-on-the-basis-of-looks-abercrombie-fitch-case-study-part-iii/

An action that is considered to be an offense committed by an individual, group, or organization using the means available through a company or government office.

Ten Examples of White Collar Crime:

Substandard labor conditions – sweatshops
Health hazards in working areas
Unlicensed people allowed performing specific duties – unlicensed vet performing surgery.
Counterfeiting
Insider Trading
Forgery
Tax Evasion
Bribery
Black Mail
Insurance Fraud

What can be seen is that it stands in stark contrast to “street crimes” or the more emotional crimes such as murder, rape, and kidnapping.  Even if a crime such as murder occurs under this definition, it can be considered white-collar if the motivation is found to be in relation to the workplace, such as going to such a length to keep someone quiet or to make sure that their level of intimidation is known to others.  An individual or group or whole company may commit this type of crime. 

The psychological findings for such individuals to commit crimes when it is believed that their jobs are satisfactory salary wise for decent living standards falls into the same patterns of deviancy as other criminals.  Sutherland believed that differential association worked on a number of levels from gangs and new recruits, to workers influencing each other, to anyone learning a trait from someone else mixed with measuring the benefits and costs of such actions. If the benefits outweighed the costs it would take, then the crime is worth the effort. 

The term white-collar stems from the white shirts many males in professional businesses wear with their suits.  These crimes are often undetectable, not punished to the same degree as violent crimes, and do not arouse the same emotions as other forms of crime. 

To put simply:  

(example A) a person can be robbed on the street – they lose their wallet and everything in it.  Their present financial situation takes a blow.  This would be called a street crime.  
(example B) a company is faulted for insider trading and saving those employees and trusted ‘friends’ from losing money in their shares.  These privileged few sell their shares to save their money.  The rest of the shareholders who are not aware of the underhanded and deviancy of the company’s employees find that their stocks have failed, their money is lost, and their future was stolen.  This is white-collar crime.  

White-collar crimes can steal your future from you, whereas a mugging or robbery just takes your present.

Historical example:

Herbert Hoover was the Director of the FBI, not by his own integrity. The list of illegal practices that he did while he was in this position could all be summed up as abuse and misuse of power and privileges. He was a gangster just like the ones he associated himself with.

Short list of his crimes:

1. Befriended the mafia heads for several purposes as well as kept them from being targeted by FBI and other gov. offices.
2. Undermined the efforts of the FBI to do their job, presented the organization as one of hiring intelligent, ethical people yet, he was not.
3. Fraud
4. Used gov. property for his own comfort such as having the FBI car with a chauffer drive him and his associate to work and lunch everyday.
5. Taxpaying money paid for the limo service and for his vacations to Florida and California under the deception that these were not for fun but rather for work. Meanwhile, he was hanging out with organized crime heads.
6. Used the FBI agents to do home improvement.
7. Abuse of the FBI resources available such as having the crime lab examine the animal feces that was on his patio.
8. Gave the public the image that the FBI was cleaning up the streets of the gangsters meanwhile the real threat was the growing mafia and they were immune.
9. Hoover would make bets off the racetrack, which was illegal.
10. Had knowledge of stocks, insider trading.
11. Hoover openly displayed his prejudice and bigotry towards ideals- and ideas- black progressive movements by such men like Martin Luther King and also did not like the feminist movements that were growing.
12. His arrest for picking up a male prostitute somehow disappeared due to his position of power.
13. His personal life and sexuality was blackmail against him due to the stigma at the time- this in turn gave the mafia power over him. So they worked together.
14. He snooped – would wire tap or phone tap the lines of other influential and rich people – had files on them and could use it as blackmail such as he did with JFK.
17. LBJ and Hoover had a friendship, which may have contributed to the death of JFK and LBJ’s VP position and later presidency.
18. Hoover would not cooperate well with Robert Kennedy, when Hoover seemed to be losing control over his position to not touch the mafia rings – he sent memos to Robert Kennedy about JFK’s womanizing as a form of blackmail.
19. Hoover promoted one agent through what was seen as favoritism – probably due to the fact that they were a homosexual couple.
20. Intimidated LBJ and Nixon and neither one would call for his retirement; instead they would continue to keep him in his position until he died.