Pretty white people… you have a new job. You can be a racist… be anti-Asian… and get rich and famous. It’s ironic that every anti-Asian racist campaign works like a charm proven both nationally… and now internationally. It’s better than dropping your usual boring press release. Who’s even gonna blog about it? But a picture on the internet sparks a thousand tweets.
Abercrombie & Fitch has made a business out of racist and specifically anti-Asian marketing. In 2002, A&F released the racist “Two Wongs Can Make It White” T-shirt that caused a flurry of dissent across the United States. Even I, who was so sick of my gay friends wearing A&F, had to go out and order a couple of T-shirts. Why? Because there was something unspeakably alluring and transgressive about racist artifacts that are bound to become collector’s items.
It’s just like going to the Civil Rights Institute museum in Birmingham where I couldn’t help sneak a shot of the KKK costume behind the museum glass.
Although that bit of Asian Americana didn’t go international, A&F has continued to grow in popularity in Asian.
Precisely a decade later, the same company opened a store in Korea and probably paid off (my imagination) one of its pretty white models to “mock Asians” via a personal Instagram picture and a tweet… and another model to “secretly” give a finger to the Korean press.
Could these racist incidents from A&F be mere accidents or could they have been more institutionalized?
Being racist toward Asians could easily be hip marketing. Did anything happen to Miley Cyrus after posing in that chinky eyes picture? These growing incidents almost felt like intentional marketing ploys as being racist to Asians carry little real consequences.
It’s not like A&F would fear their store windows getting smashed if they had made some racist T-shirts about African Americans. Would they dare?
Companies here in South Korea DO make fun of African Americans and other foreigners too. There are plenty that never get press because its Korea.
So does that mean it’s ok for AF to be racists?
That’s an excellent point because why do Asians make such a big point when we are being made fun of… especially in America. Could it be because we don’t feel we are in power both politically and economically?
One of the Black teachers here asked: I wonder how many Korean actors have been fired for Blackface?
I hope Asians and Asian-Americans stop patronizing Hollister/A&F. I doubt we will, though. If making fun of Asians and telling them F you does not have any consequences, why shouldn’t companies and people continue to do this?
“Companies here in South Korea DO make fun of African Americans and other foreigners too.”
There have been a few incidents, but I don’t think you can compare them to the volume of anti-Asian cases in the U.S. Where have companies made fun of “other foreigners”?
@phil , Ignorance breeds racism. This article in the Korea Times http://get.lk/S0gRx Really tells the truth about the environment here.
What the Hollister model did was wrong. This happened in Korea. Not on American soil. So on the flip side, who tells Koreans what they do to foreigners here is wrong? Racism shouldn’t be tolerated just because “It’s Korea.”
@jstele please. MBC “expose” on the dangers of dating foreign men a few months ago was just atrocious.
yes, racism is wrong.
but honestly, is korea a multicultural society? last i checked, it doesn’t have the same commitment to people of all backgrounds as america supposedly does.
so, what’s the worse offense — discrimination, ignorance, hate and bigotry there (btw, does is even rise to the level of the L.A. riots, chinese exclusion acts, japanese internment, etc. there?) or that it continues to flourish here in the u.s.? e.g. ‘asians in the library’, ‘chinx’, the persistent derision of asian men in pop culture or ‘lady chinky eyes’, etc.
if you put things in proper perspective, i think much more work needs to be done here before we can go about criticizing other cultures and holding them to a level that we as a people don’t adhere to ourselves.
aren’t these YT trolls smart enough to come up with new tactics rather than the same old divide-and-conquer tactics of pitting blacks against Asians?
no doubt Koreans harbor racist thoughts towards blacks, but most of it is due to US mass media’s influence exported overseas for 60+ years.
Americans, especially Asian Americans have every right to be angry. But Koreans here have a lot of work to do as well. There is no excuse for Koreans here to be spittin at my feet and screaming in my face and calling me a dirty monkey. THERE IS NO EXCUSE KOREA!
i personally have experienced much worse here in america, where supposedly everyone is ‘equal’, and has inalienable rights to liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
i was spit upon, assaulted, shoved from the back and into the girl i was hanging out with in a bar (she chipped her tooth on her beer bottle), my car vandalized, etc. .. and called much worse than a ‘dirty monkey’. (of course, the face to face stuff only happens when the numbers are clearly in their favor, never when it would be an even fight.)
i deal with it. if you don’t realize by now that there are good people and bad people everywhere, that’s on you.
if you don’t like it so much there, it’s time to move on with your life. simply stated, that country doesn’t have the same ‘guarantees’ as the u.s. allegedly does. whining on message boards and being miserable is pointless.
oh, here’s great ‘advice’ that i got over the years, maybe you’ll appreciate it. if you’re not getting the equal treatment you believe you deserve, it’s your fault. you haven’t ingratiated yourself enough to others. you haven’t proven yourself worthy enough to others. you don’t deserve respect until you earn it, and you just haven’t earned it yet. you should ‘know your place’. what did you do to cause other people to do that to you? maybe you should have been much nicer and more humble to those assholes who called you names and spit near you. then, maybe they wouldn’t have done that.
oh, but … they don’t promise you ‘equality’, or ‘equal’ treatment over there? sorry, i got nothin for you.
in the standard Amerikkkan kkkorporate non-apology apology lingo:
We’re sorry that you’re offended, but our intention was never to make any foreigner feel alienated. It’s intended as a joke, so please get a sense of humor.
Yeah. You’re both right. I should go back to where I came from. I had a better attitude towards Koreans before I came here. Now I have become bitter, and that isn’t good.
I don’t wear Hollister and I never will. Their jeans dont fit my booty.
Peace out.
Both A&F and Hollister are so passé… look at it as the company’s last stunt. I think I’m going back to Benetton!
Kurlykolly,
The problem with your comment is the hypocrisy. You basically excused the racism of the Hollister models by saying that it happens in Korea as well and because it was on Korean soil, that it was justified and DOES NOT represent American racism. They are AMERICAN models so of course, they represent American racism.
You really can’t compare the amount of racism towards foreigners in Korea to the racism towards Asians in America. You use the MBC report as an example, but that happened several months ago. It seems like there is an anti-Asian incident in the U.S. every few weeks at least.
I don’t think racism should be excused, but it’s hard to take seriously a group that is known for their whining as English teachers are, especially white ones. If people did spit at you, that is wrong, but at some point, you need to take responsibility for yourself and not make everything that you don’t like about Korea racist as many ESL teachers do. Americans need to clean up their own house before calling out others. It is seriously ridiculous to claim that Korea is more racist when you look at the history and number of incidents.
Caucasian only twitpic.com/axwg33
yeah, so those idiots are blatant about their preferences.
you know what? asians can’t even work at that place. boo hoo.. is it against the law? maybe, maybe not. i don’t know the laws of that country.
you want a better problem? figure out how these numbers are ‘legal’, given the demographics and anti-discrimination laws of this country.
http://www.diversityinc.com/diversity-facts/wheres-the-diversity-in-fortune-500-ceos/
maybe you’d rather that the preferences be hidden and lied about .. ‘we’re committed to diversity’, ‘the job goes to the most qualified’, etc.
you’re demanding that korea provide you with a theoretical ideal of equality (which you feel that you somehow deserve) when it doesn’t even exist here in america.
Hahaha! You are do funny!
Whoops! I’m using a new tablet.
I meant you are so funny. You refuse to acknowledge my point.. NO ONE SHOULD GET A FREE PASS! We both hate racism. Yes America dishes out racism daily. Yes Korea does also. So I think it’s very strange that the majority of private schools here accept only Whites. This is strange in light of recent events that postings such as these still exist. Don’t be angry with me and please do not assume that you know my life. I am not demanding anything from Korea. When did I ever say that Korea is more racist? I didn’t. My point is that some people here are racist TOO. Let’s not start comparing battle scars when 40% of the Black male population is in jail for the same crimes White men get away with. Let’s not go there.
of course i get your point. and i have framed it as ‘we should take out the log in our own eye, so we can get the speck out of their eye’.
compare apples to apples. the founding prinicples of america ARE NOT the same as korea’s.
that being said, are koreans systemically violent towards people of other races?
you should go to russia or other european countries such as poland, netherlands, bulgaria, etc., and see how they treat you there.
http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/attachments/CS-RV-main.pdf
So what you’re saying is: It’s okay because it’s Korea. Mmmm No. I don’t accept it. I don’t care about Europe. I live in Korea, and yes I can call them out on it. I will continue to call them out on it until I leave here. Why? Because it is NOT OK to be a bigot, racist or just downright mean. Drop the multicultural society excuse because it means nothing. Why don’t you ask the Chinese and Filipino kids in my school district who get their butts kicked in the bathrooms just because they’re not Korean? There is some bullying going on here that largely gets covered up or denied. Don’t go there. People are people. There is violence everywhere. It is NOT okay.
no, i have not said ‘it’s ok, because it’s korea’. further, i don’t see anyone here claiming that korea does not have racists or that they do not discriminate. that’s all in your head.
i have said that, on balance, given that country’s founding principles and this one, it’s more of a problem that such rampant and severe forms of racism and discrimination goes on here. this is solely because that country doesn’t promise you anything, while this one does. it is not a ‘multicultural society excuse’, it’s reality. in fact, they’re supposed guarantees.
to say that you aren’t demanding anything is inaccurate. you are pointlessly questioning the _legality_ of discrimination in a country that does not have the same laws against discrimination or commitment to equality as the u.s. does (e.g. ‘how is this even legal?’). you’re ‘call[ing] them out on it’ to bring about some change in that society by trying to shame them and its inhabitants.
so, what’s your point? is it wrong? idealistically, yes. but then ‘pot vs. kettle’ responses apply, because america does not live up to these ideals, either. so you can continue to do what you want, but i question the efficacy of your methods.
is it worse there? not sure, but your personal experiences probably do not rise to the levels i personally experience, endure and overcome.
“is it worse there? not sure, but your personal experiences probably do not rise to the levels i personally experience, endure and overcome.”
That’s really big assumption given we don’t know each other at all. You want to compare battle scars and I won’t do that.
“America does not live up to these ideals, either.” Ok you’re right.