“I’m not white, no matter how hard I exercise, no matter how much I deprive myself of food - I was never able to achieve anything even in proximity.” “What I realized after that Abercrombie incident is that when it comes to that version of masculinity, I’m completely ineligible to play the game,” Ocampo said. Today, Ocampo - a sociology professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona - is vocal about the toll that selling such a narrow idea of cool, sexy and masculine had on him and other Asian American men, a group that had already been portrayed as emasculated in U.S. While Ocampo said he was happy to rail against the company’s racist practices two decades ago, the brand’s aesthetic affected his own sense of attractiveness for some time. Abercrombie settled the suit in 2004, paying out $40 million, but never formally admitted guilt. But Ocampo said he was unexpectedly barred from working at the store - because, he was later told, he's Filipino - and he became one of several employees of color who joined a 2003 class-action lawsuit accusing the company of discriminatory practices.
