Fox 4 here in DFW is reporting how Macy's is trying to market to Hispanics with a T-shirt that the report claims is offensive to Hispanics. The T-shirt reads, "Brown is the New White".
I've seen my share of T-shirts, everything from ironic to pornographic. In fact, I noticed in Target the other day, they are selling toddler T-shirts that read, "1. I want it. 2. You buy it for me. 3. Any questions?" I thought that was more offensive because of the fact it was for a toddler and it feeds the entitlement culture, but I digress.
"Trendy", as quoted in the article, is referring to a statement on a T-shirt that they knew was controversial. Don't be fooled for second that people at Macy's are this stupid:
The T-shirt, which reads "Brown is the New White," is offensive, according to Hispanic marketing expert Dr. Ed Rincon.
"Macy's doesn't know a whole lot about what Hispanics want in the way of clothing. It also says that Macy's doesn't understand Hispanic culture. More importantly, it says that Macy's doesn't understand the Hispanics that lives in the U.S. and the kinds of products they are looking for," Rincon said.
However, Rincon said some Hispanic customers might enjoy and even purchase the shirt.
Macy's apologized for its decision to sell the shirt, releasing this statement:
"We are constantly looking for unique and differentiated merchandise that will resonate with our customers as hip, current and trendy. We also continue to work in developing business relationships with minority vendors to serve the growing diverse customer base. We apologize if customers have found some of the merchandise offensive and have removed the style that they found objectionable."
As usual, the reporter found an expert, in this case Dr. Rincon, who can defend the company by saying that Macy's people are culturally ignorant. To believe that, you have to believe that Macy's is totally run by white people and they did zero research. A major retailer who carries products without research is also known as "bankrupt" (e.g. Montgomery Wards). Since Macy's is not bankrupt, you can bet they don't carry any products without running them through over-thinking comities who approve the product based on market research and vendor-provided information.
I happen to think this shirt is consciously marketed to a specific group of Hispanics, the ones who came out in droves during the immigration protests and flew Mexican flags. It's not like anybody living in the Dallas area didn't know about immigration protests going on this year. You would have to believe that Macy's employees here don't pay attention to the news. Marketing people always pay attention to the media. That's what they do. They just didn't think it was a big deal. It just so happens somebody somehow routed this story to Fox 4 and they chose to carry it, making it a big deal.
I think the thing that bothers me the most about this is it reveals a dirty little secret of the marketing industry. Marketing could be described as racist. It breaks people into groups based on race, sex, age, and any other way to group people to examine buying habits. This seems benign because people do have a tendency to behave in similar demographic groups. This seems at odds with those who want you to believe that everybody is the same. How companies handle demographic data becomes a fine line between savvy marketing and pure racism.
In the above story, a product that is obviously racist is targeted at a group of people by race. When Macy's says it's "trendy" they really mean "ironic racism". I think we'll see more of this as we continue segment different groups of people and treat them differently based on those groups.
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