As if the Nazi collaboration wasn't enough, L'Oreal has just been slapped with a £20, 000 fine for racist hiring in a historic French case.
The French campaign group SOS Racisme brought the case against L'Oréal, the world's largest cosmetics firm, over the campaign in 2000. Garnier France sought saleswomen to demonstrate the shampoo line Fructis Style in supermarkets outside Paris. They sought young women to hand out samples and discuss hairstyling with shoppers.In July 2000, a fax detailing the profile of hostesses sought by L'Oréal stipulated women should be 18 to 22, size 38-42 (UK size 10-14) and "BBR", the initials for bleu, blanc, rouge, the colours of the French flag. Prosecutors argued that BBR, a shorthand used by the far right, was also a well-known code among employers to mean "white" French people and not those of north African, African and Asian backgrounds.Christine Cassan, a former employee at Districom, a communications firm acting for Garnier, told the court her clients demanded white hostesses. She said that when she had gone ahead and presented candidates "of colour" a superior in her own company had said she had "had enough of Christine and her Arabs". The Guardian
The great thing is, they're not above selling to non-white people, they own Softsheen-Carson and RedKen, for god's sake. They have a huge slice of the billion-dollar-black-hair-industry cake.
And the same people who made those hiring decisions weren't above hiring Beyonce and Kelly Rowland to shill (because, apparently, a $500 weave needs moisturising). They just wouldn't hire them to sell.
Just to recap, the firm that actively decided not to hire anyone who wasn't white owns:
- Redken
- Softsheen Carson
- The Body Shop
- Diesel & Armani Perfumes
- Maybelline
- Ralph Lauren
- Lancome
* Full disclosure: I kept that in for dramatic effect. But I stopped using Softsheen stuff like two years ago. It hurt my 'fro, which I think should be a capital offence.
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They also use Kerry Washington as a model. The size requirements are off too.Racism is everywhere. I don't know why we are ever shocked by things like this thought.
French women have a tendancy to be small so I wonder why they won't hire anyone smaller than a size 10.
OH MY GOD. L'Oreal should be damn ashamed of themselves. I lived in Paris for a few months and the race situation over is no joke.
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