This post will make more sense if you have heard of Abercrombie & Fitch, and you know of the controversy surrounding the noted clothing retailer.
I spent most of today at West County Mall. As it is with any day that I go to the mall, I really have no use for A&F, and rarely go inside. So, like usual, I just blew past the entrance to the store, on my way to where I really wanted to go, and that is the Apple Store.
But as I was passing by the A&F front, there was a young black man, mid-20s, who looked to be (and indeed turned out to be) a store employee, chatting with a young black woman, same age, I’m guessing girlfriend, sister, cousin, or something of the like. As I walked by, I heard him say, (exact quote), “You think I like working at a store where I gotta look at these big ass pictures of these naked ass white boys all the time?” Once I heard that, I had to stop, because I couldn’t believe I heard what I thought I just heard. A few seconds later, he added: “This store makes a lotta money off of white boys showin’ off they asses, and yet The Man tells me to pull up my pants. Sheyt, that’s racism.” (sic). Presumably, he meant that he nor any other employee of A&F is allowed to sag their pants at work.
If it were a white employee talking with another white person insulting blacks within earshot of black mall pedestrians, they would have complained right away, and have him fired ASAP. I will indeed complain, by putting in a call to that store’s manager tomorrow. And, if things work out the way I want to, then this fellow will soon be wishing he was around all those pictures of naked white boys again.
Though I should add that the A&F model photos inside their locations don’t show anything close to full frontal or rear nudity. One might infer from some of them that the models were completely naked at the time of the photo shoot, and that they are implying suggestive nudity. However, the posters are far less racy than A&F’s former catalog was, the catalog was nothing more than soft-core porn. However, even with the in-store posters, A&F pushed the envelope this past February by showing enough male posterior cleavage to earn the ire of Virginia Beach, Va.’s Finest.
