Financially struggling clothing company American Apparel is coming under fire for its discriminatory hiring practices. The ubiquitous store, which has spread like dandelions in recent months by hawking hipster basics, is being accused by many of looks discrimination, and now racism.
Internal documents and former employee testimonials acquired by Gawker.com show that American Apparel has an intensely biased attitude against African American women when being considered for employment. According to Gawker, when considering black women coming to open call interviews, a former employee remembers having been told regarding African American women:
"none of the trashy kind that come in, we don't want that. we're not trying to sell our clothes to them. try to find some of these classy black girls, with nice hair, you know?"
In addition, there is an unhealthy and strange attitude of control in evidence regarding how American Apparel expects black women to style their hair while working for them. The former American Apparel employee further reminisces:
"i will remember that forever, especially the 'nice hair' part. he was instructing another manager and i on who to look for during an upcoming open call, and i sat there dumbfounded, listening to him speak while the other manager made 'uh huh, got it' sounds on her end of the phone. the other manager on the call with me later became a district manager, and at one point instructed me to tell two of my employees (both of whom happened to be black females) to stop straightening their hair. i refused to do this..." [Emphasis Added]
Please read the full story on Gawker.com.
It is disgusting and disturbing to hear that black women are still being singled out and held to unfair standards because of assumptions based on race and our physical racial characteristics. It is disheartening, but not surprising. It is also not shocking that American Apparel is the firm coming under fire for these accusations.
This company seldom features African American models, or other models of color, in its ads. It makes perfect sense that American Apparel does not want many blacks in their stores, and that those it chooses to hire must conform to a narrow idea of what a "classy black girl" would be. At this point in America's corporate history, this kind of discrimination against African Americans, and black women for their hair, is old news. It's only rare that proof of such bigotry is spelled out clearly in a way that cannot be denied. American Apparel has yet to respond to these allegations, but it would make sense for the firm to say something -- and soon. This bad press will erode the liberal, young audience the company seeks to appeal to, ironically with the discriminatory, looks-based practices it is using to promote the brand.
In addition to being unethical, this is very bad business.
Via Clutch Magazine
Comments: (10)
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By: ASH on 6/12/2010 9:35AM
Can we please have some real conversations of how a lot of black women, especially some that I'VE EVEN WITNESSED myself, come dressed to work if not interviews?
If your a business owner you want employees who have enough self-respect to represent themselves correctly as well the business. American Apparel is finally setting a standard on dress code, Blacks should have nothing to bitch about because it is a PLACE OF BUSINESS, NOT A CLUB. You either meet the standard of dress and etiquette, or you don't... welcome to the real world!!!
If you hate American Apparel for it.. you have a several choice: 1) Don't work/apply for them if your fashion sense is that attached to you ego. 2) Simply don't shop there - money talks.
3) Stop being a consumer and USE YOUR TAX RETURN AND START YOUR OWN CLOTHING LINE, and stop bitching about your lost of individuality at someone else's business.
Once you put yourselves in an owner's shoes, tell me what standards you want to set for your employees.
It's 2010 - we need to start behaving with some MORE class (and that I mean professionalism, not white-wash) if we want the stereotypes to cease.
Think about it.
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By: Lee on 6/12/2010 1:53PM
One would have to ask one self Why do White people hate Blacks so much? Maybe its because they could'nt keep us as slaves. Which is why they try to keep us out of the job market by paying slave wages 7.25 an hour for minium wage.And this is the stanard pay for blacks with a high school education. now some companies may pay little more but not as much as white people who get paid to lose rich white people money. so keep on being racist it will caught up with you white people one way or another. Look at the Oil spill.God is trying to tell you something.
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By: LaB. on 6/12/2010 4:17PM
I hope this is widely shared so that consumers can make an informed decision about whether to spend their money at American Apparel.
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By: es on 6/13/2010 9:03AM
I think the ball is in both side's court. I agree that it is discriminatory on the part of American Apparel but you don't have to apply there or shop there. We have more control than we recognize.
Also, speaking as a young black woman, it is true that some of us have very bad attitudes. Key word SOME! I don't think this is specific to our race but it is rife. Unfortunately, these are the ones that people notice the most. Here in the Caribbean most of the service industry workers are young black women- with veeeery bad attitudes. Sometimes you have to stare in wonderment at how rude and discourteous they are. I had a run in up to last week.
On the issue of hair straightening, that is very strange. Usually they prefer our hair straight so to hear that they would prefer it unstraightened sounds more like a personal preference of the manager than a company-wide directive.
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By: mike on 6/13/2010 5:50PM
Lee, you the man my brother, the hell with them white peoples and their American what ever the hell them called clothing line, our bithes be looking fine the way they are right my blood? HA HA HA. Get a job.
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By: Leticia on 6/13/2010 12:10PM
I have never shopped nor worked for American Apparel, which is I guess what they want. With that said; I do believe what they are practicing is racist, sexist and discriminatory. As an American black woman it sounds like American Apparel pigeon-holes their image of black women for it's stores. We come in many shades and shapes and sizes and hair textures. For a company to say that they will hire a black woman based upon her specific features or attributes is wrong. A company has a right to establish a dress code for its employees but to single out a speficic group for maintaining or securing employment is wrong, illegal.
I do believe there are black women out there who do not dress the par for business, but there are also white, asian, and mexican women as well who lack proper knowledge or etiquette for business dress. But on the flip side, I see plenty of black women who are dressed to the tee for business. If brown-haired white women found out they were not hired by a company because their hair color was not blond they would pair up and file a class action lawsuit against that company. Where are the black women and their anger for being discriminated against? Why are black women singled out by this company for this terrible business practice?
It's unfortunate, just as statistics follow, the American black woman is put on a negative pedestal for all to see. If it's not American Apparel with their racist, sexist, discriminatory practices, then it's another company doing the same thing, or statistics singling us out placing us on a negative pedestal telling the world that an overwhelming percentage of black women are single mothers, have high divorce rates, have HIV, genital herpes. Where are the positive statistics about black women? I never hear anyone glorifying black women for what we've accomplished or for what we are working on, always negative.
Lord knows what else will be thrown at us.
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By: Erica Gordon on 7/10/2010 7:40PM
I think American Apparel has some cute clothes. But I won't be buying any ever. But I see nothing wrong with them choosing workers with un-straighten hair
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