Why I Hate A&F

In Dwight McBride’s “Why I Hate Abercrombie & Fitch,” McBride explores the idea that Abercrombie and Fitch is racist. McBride believes that Abercrombie and Fitch the brand acts as an idea and not a clothing company and therefore targets a specific audience. Through advertisements and employment practices, Abercrombie and Fitch has built an image for the company; an image that McBride feels is racist.
McBride supports his claim by arguing that Abercrombie and Fitch sells their idea of how an American should appear, “Natural, American, classic.” McBride tells of how Abercrombie wants their models and employees to have a “natural” look. To give employees and consumers an idea of how they were suppose to appear in order to have this so called “natural” look, Abercrombie produced the Look Book. Inside the Look Book are different types of hairstyles and guidelines that Abercrombie feels are necessary to give one the “Natural, American, classic” look. McBride feels the Look Book demonstrates racism because it does not allow dread locks, a hairstyle natural to African Americans. McBride shows that the African American community is excluded from Abercrombie’s idea of “Natural, American, classic” and as a result African Americans are excluded from the idea of how a natural American should appear. To further support his argument that Abercrombie is racist, McBride re-tells a story an ex-assistant manager from Abercrombie and Fitch hold told him. The assistant manager told McBride that while working at the Abercrombie and Fitch the stock room workers were all African American and all brand representatives were white. The actions of this Abercrombie and Fitch retailer solidifies McBride’s argument the Abercrombie is racist. McBride also makes a very interesting point that the idea of what is “Natural American” is not correct if one defines “Natural American” exactly as it is stated. According to McBride, in order to have an authentic Natural American look one would need to dress like a Native American. The Native Americans were the first ones to live in America and lived off the land, how much more “Natural American Classic” can one get? This example demonstrates that the idea of what is “Natural American” has been built by those in power.
So what is the “Natural American classic” look that Abercrombie is selling? When I think of what a typical American looks like I think of a white man dressed in casual clothes, much like clothes that are sold at Abercrombie and Fitch. As McBride demonstrates, the idea of how an American is supposed to appear is sold to Americans through companies such as Abercrombie and Fitch and as a result the American public thinks the typical American is a white man. Up until reading this article I had not really thought about why the typical American appears to be a white male.
McBride’s argument that Abercrombie and Fitch is racist is extremely eye-opening. I believe that McBride is correct that Abercrombie sells an “idea” but I’m not so sure I agree that buy targeting white men the company is racist. Companies have target audiences they attempt to direct their products towards and use different methods of selling their products. FUBU, For Us By Us, is directed towards African Americans, much like Abercrombie is directed towards white men. In conclusion, I believe McBride is correct that Abercrombie sells an idea but is wrong in believing that A&F is racist.