Abercrombie & which standard? Ask Gump

Abercrombie & Fitch has settled a lawsuit for 40 million dollars which had accused the clothing retailer of promoting whites and discriminating against minorities in hiring and marketing practices.

AP reports:

The settlement, approved Tuesday morning by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston, requires the company to adhere to a consent decree that calls for the implementation of new policies and programs to promote diversity and prevent discrimination in its workforce. Abercrombie & Fitch also must pay about $10 million to monitor compliance and cover attorneys' fees, although the agreement contains no admission of wrongdoing by the company.

I admit to owning a few pieces of clothing from Abercrombie & Fitch. However, truth be told, I don't like the company. I've often found their socio-degenerate teen marketing campaign to be somewhat offensive and I've had one or two bad experiences with a couple of their impudent little teen employees. That said, I must say that I really despise this type of litigation -- mostly because it raises our society's racial double standard, which is one of my pet peeves.

Here's what the EEOC is alleging in this lawsuit:

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission joined the private plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which alleged that Abercrombie & Fitch violated portions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The lawsuit specifically accused the company of engaging in recruiting and hiring practices that exclude minorities and adopting a virtually all-white marketing campaign.

"The retail industry and other industries need to know that businesses cannot discriminate against individuals under the auspice of a marketing strategy or a particular 'look'. Race and sex discrimination in employment are unlawful, and the EEOC will continue to aggressively pursue employers who choose to engage in such practices," said Eric Dreiband, the EEOC's general counsel.

This is fine and good and if A&F is excluding minorities in violation of the Civil Rights Act, then by all means have at them. I hate discrimination, period. But if the EEOC is serious about wishing to rid industries of marketing strategies based upon race, then what should it do about companies such as Vibe Magazine?

Please take a look at the Vibe link and tell me that there isn't a recruiting and hiring practice going on there which excludes whites (and other races) and adopts a virtually all-black marketing campaign.

Yeah, yeah, so what's my point? My point is that I hate the double standard, that's all. Either hold everyone to the same standard or else chuck the standard. Otherwise, I just get downright confused as to which standard I'm supposed to apply to which color group. It's like having a different crayon sharpener hole for each color in the Crayola box. After a while, you'd start to think, "man it would be nice if I could just use them all in this one right here."

Okay, I've now resorted to crayon analogies to meander my way through racial issues. Either I'm becoming frighteningly trite or I've somehow channeled Forrest Gump to complete this post.

Just remember that life is like a box of crayons.

Maybe I'm just tired and it's time for bed? God, I hope that's it. Good night.