"Why I Hate Abercrombie and Fitch"

In this very controversial article entitled “Why I Hate Abercrombie and Fitch” written by Dwight McBride, he discusses the real meaning behind Abercrombie and Fitch and how they produce such “brands” instead of products. McBride makes the claim that Abercrombie is only aimed toward white male and female middle class students between the ages of 18-22. He gives a brief summary on the history of the company and how it was originally created for outfitters of the “rich, famous and powerful” (63). It had become the largest sporting goods store in the world in 1917. Teddy Roosevelt even shopped there for his trips to the Amazon as well as Robert Peary’s famous trip to the North Pole. McBride notes that even in its earliest years, the label was geared toward high end white men and the life of the leisure classes. Now within the 20th century, their clothes are attracted to the “collegiate” educational lifestyle. McBride then discusses the “Look Book” in which the guidelines and rules of having “The A&F Look” are provided. They want their employees to look as “natural” as they can. The “All-American” and “classic” look is what they think their look means. He makes the argument of how Native Americans have far more historic claim is not the image their going for. This is where Abercrombie is making the term Americans with “whiteness” and America with “white”. McBride writes of the rules and guidelines upon having the “look”. No long gold chains, no piercing except ears, and appropriate undergarments. Here, Abercrombie codes race and class without having to name it (71). McBride also notes that all the employees working in the front of the store are white and the ones that work in the back of the store not being seen are black.

McBride then interviews multiple male workers of Abercrombie and their reason for leaving. They gave the behind the seen situations where the “ones with the look” were hired and the ones without were not. He claims that Abercrombie has complete racist thinking (86). He ends with the note that people “buy Abercrombie to purchase a membership into a lifestyle” (86).

McBride clearly relates to Johnson and his opinion of white dominance. Here Abercrombie is directed towards that white all American educated male and female and nothing else.

Takaki Ch. 12 "El Norte"

In Chapter 12 of Takaki’s book “A Different Mirror” he discusses the history of the Mexicans and their immigration into America. The chapter is entitles “El Norte” which translates to The North. Takaki discusses the struggles that Mexico was entering and the Civil War that was at hand. During this tough time in Mexico, nearly half a million Mexicans crossed the border into something in which people described as “the wonderful estados unidos” (312). Takaki emphasizes the strong nationality the Mexicans had towards Mexico and how they were only traveling to America for their own protection and would soon return. The waiting soon stretched into years. The civil war was devastating and everything in Mexico was being shutdown. This is what accelerated the movement to the U.S. One thing that triggered the Mexicans was also the railroad and the development of transportation. Mexicans were being stuffed in the train cars and crossing the boarder. Mexicans were now the primary work force in the construction industry. Some Mexican women even were given domestic jobs like the Irish except they did not generally work on a live-in basis. The Mexicans even migrated north to Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania. People liked the Mexican workers because they were seen as docile, patient, orderly in camp, obedient and cheap (320). Most Mexicans however, worked in agriculture. Land owners then began discouraging them to owning cars and tried to use debt to keep them from leaving. Some then began to go on strike when land owners wanted to lower their wages. To break the strike, employers dumped their belongings on the highway and evicted them from their camps. The Mexicans soon found out that integration did not mean equality. Sometimes they were even considered colored people and had to obey by the rules of the Negroes. The Mexicans fought for their education for their children and were told that they can go to school but to make sure they know that they will never be as “good as a white man” (327). They were told that educated Mexicans were the hardest to handle. The teachers were fighting for the learning of the Mexican children but the superintendent and the school board wouldn’t have it. One Mexican father in specific stated “I would rather die than take my children out of school” (329). At this time Mexicans were not only entering the country in great numbers but also had a very rapid birthrate. Clearly race was being used as a weapon by the American Federation of Labor; Mexicans not only constituted “cheap labor” but were regarded as incapable of becoming fully American.

Takaki makes a clear relation to the immigration of the Mexicans from those of the Japanese and the Irish. It is almost the exact some tactics the whites used on the Irish that they used on the Mexicans, considering them to be on the same status level as the blacks. But why did they see the Mexicans as being better for physical working environments than any other nationality? The difference is compared to maybe the Irish is that the Mexicans had somewhere to go back to if they needed to. The Irish or the Japanese would have a more difficult time returning home.

Video-3rd installment of “The Power of an Illusion”

In this 3rd installment of “The Power of an Illusion” they take a more recent look at racism in the United States. This video includes World War 2 and is mainly within the past 50. They focused more on how race is mostly a difference in opportunity and not actual cultural distinctions. Immigrants came seeking a greater economic standing, freedom and opportunities for their families. They end up working the hardest jobs and getting paid the least. This was seen as “racial consequence” or even “national consequences”. They mention a situation in Atlanta where a Jew was pulled from jail and hung for killing a white girl. This is where the question of whether Jews were considered “white” and could possibly Europeans become white when moving to America? Only free “white” immigrants were given the right to vote such as the Irish, French and others. If you were considered white in America, you would gain the full rewards. The video mentions how in different parts of the country you could be considered white or a mix of both African and American or Japanese and American. In one state if you were 1/8 Ancestry of black you were considered black and 1/16 in another state. You could literally go from state to state and completely change race. Another instance was given of a man in 1922 who was of foreign descent and was born in America if he could become a “natural citizen”. He was determined to be granted this from the Supreme Court. He did everything that was considered “white”; spoke English, went to church. The Supreme Court denied his grant to be American in claiming that he was not Caucasian and according to science he was not white. Not all immigrants were granted citizenship and their land was taken from them and given to whites. In 1924 the Johnson Reed Immigration Act was put into play. This completely cut immigration from eastern to southern Europe. In 1930 the FHA was created giving loans to average Americans to buy housed and own land. They had to pat 50% of the sale price up-front. But the presence of colored families would depreciate the value of the surrounding homes. Most of these mortgages went to suburban whites. Between 1934 and 1961, 120 billion dollars in housing was deled out, less than 2% was for non-whites. So in reality the G.I. Bill was only available to certain people. In 1968 there was the Free Housing Act in which blacks moved into white communities by numbers. The technique was called “blockbusting” when whites’ homes were resold to blacks for inflated prices. This was the start of the white people leaving and settling down in other communities. The tax raised and the schools struggled. This was the first initial key to segregation.
This movie related to Brodkin when he talks about the G.I. Bill and how it affected only certain people such as the middle class whites. It relates to the sections of land and how it was divided among different races and incomes such as the red zone and the green zone. It completely shut the blacks out of their benefits from the G.I.

Takaki Ch. 6 “Emigrants from Erin”

In Takaki Ch. 6, he discusses the struggles of the Irish and England’s takeover of their land. Between 1815 and 1920 five and a half million Irish emigrated to America. The English took over 14 percent and made their land into room for their cattle, forcing the Irish to migrate to America. They were completely poverty stricken by the British colonization. Their agriculture was completely taken over by cattle. There was extremely less work for the cattle than the crops. Religion was also changed in Ireland; they were changed from Protestants to Catholic. The Irish were strictly living off their potato crops. Suddenly a little known fungus appeared and changed the history of the Irish. The disease destroyed about 40 percent of the potato crops in 1845. The disease began to return every year. This time period then became to be called the “Great Famine”. During this time thousands of families were evicted from their homes. The British also exported the most cattle that could have fed half of the Irish community. Their reason for coming to American was for survival, or they would have to suffer destitution and death. When they came to America they were given jobs as the manual laborers; railway construction, factories, mining. The Irish were seen as nothing but “dogs…despised and kicked around” (147). They were pitted against other laborers of different races such as the Chinese and the Japanese. Irish then found themselves being compared to blacks. Sometimes the immigrants were even described as “Irish niggers” (150). In Ireland, the slaves to the British were the Irish and this is the same as the Africans were to the Americans. Takaki then mentions how after a while, the Irish began to try to consider themselves to be white and for their whiteness. The Irish then began to degrade against the blacks. In backlash, the blacks referred to the Irish man as “white niggers” (153). They claimed that the Irish were taking the jobs away from them. Takaki then mentions the difference between domestic work and factory work. The domestic workers were being paid more and were more stable working for families. The industrial workers were having more dangerous jobs that the masters did not want their slaves doing. Takaki then ends the chapter on the strategy the Irish had coming to America. They worked harder to find their children a great education. They mostly settled within the cities along with being highly unionized in the factories. They were also eligible for citizenship and clearly already spoke English. The Irish even possessed suffrage unlike the blacks.
There was a relationship between the Irish and the blacks and Takaki makes a clear distinction between that in this chapter. There was obviously the huge competition between them and the Irish were given the more dangerous jobs. Both groups were considered the lowest in the country. But the Irish were trying to capitalize themselves on their “whiteness”.