[Essay] The True American Look... Aryan

"Retailers defend the approach to hiring based on image as necessary and smart, and industry experts see the point. "In today's competitive retail environment, the methods have changed for capturing the consumer's awareness of your brand," said Marshal Cohen, a senior industry analyst with the NPD group, a market research firm. "Being able to find a brand enhancer, or what I call a walking billboard, is critical. It's really important to create an environment that's enticing to the community, particularly with the younger, fashionable market. A guy wants to go hang out in a store where he can see good-looking gals."

   Cohen's argument is that retailers are using developed methods to advertise and project their brand to get themselves noticed in the increasingly competitive environment but he also says that retailers primarily hires good looking people which is more white people than any other race and that this is necessary for the store to do so. One of these methods is a brand enhancer, which is a person who retailers think will make their brand look better. Brand enhancers vary depending on the brand, for example, Abercrombie & Fitch goes for an all-American look, which in my personal opinion, looks more Aryan than true American while American Apparel goes for a more seductive or sexual appeal when choosing their brand enhancers.

   I do not agree with Cohen's statement. The necessity for "brand enhancers" is miniscule and also harm the brand name. New Orleans lawyer, Stephen J. Roppolo, states: "hiring someone who is attractive isn't illegal per se. But people's views on what's attractive may be influenced bt their race, their religion, their age. ...I tell employers that their main focus needs to be hiring people who get the can get the job done. When they hire to project a certain image, that's where things can get screwy." Hiring based off of looks does not matter in the long run since the government can and will get involved like in the case of Ian Scharger. "The hotel entreprenuer Ian Scharger agreed to a 1.08 million settlement three years ago after the Equal Opportunity Commission accused his Mondrian Hotel in Wesi Hollywood of racial discrimination for firing nine valets and bellhops, eight of them nonwhite. Documents filed in court showed that Mr. Scharger had written memos saying that he wanted a trendier group of workers and that the fired employees were 'too ethnic'." The Civil Rights Act of 1964, specifically Title VII, gives people who applied for a job but got denied because of race the ability to sue the company based on denial of their civil liberties and discrimination.

   These retailer's business practices are questionable morally and their argument is also a little weak. " We want to hire brand representatives that will represent the Abercrombie & Fitch brand with natural classic American style, looking great while exhibiting individuality, project the brand and themselves with energy and enthusiasm" said Abercrombie's communications director, Tom Lennox. Their idea of representatives who will project the brand are people of the Aryan race which causes problems with people of different races."... a lawsuit filed last month in Federal District Court in San Francisco, Some Latino, Asian, and black job applicants maintain otherwise. ... when they applied to the jobs, store managers steered them to the stock rooms not the sales floor." Their argument is that they want their representatives to "looking great while exhibiting individuality" but can they really exhibit individuality where they can only wear the brand of the store they work at and beauty is also an opinion of a person.

   Retailers also choose employees based solely on looks rather than experience which seem inefficient. Antonio Serrano, former assistant manager for Abercrombie & Fitch, states, "We were supposed to approach someone in the mall who we think will look attractive in our store. If that person said 'I never worked in retailing before' we said: 'Who cares? We'll hire you.' But if someone come in who had lots of retail experience and not a pretty face , we were told not to hire them at all." Someone with retail experience would have more of the social skills and the ability to sell the brand than a novice walking around the mall. Also hiring someone with no experience requires training which a veteran of the field would not require since they most likely already have training already.