Where Are Jennifer Sheahan, Dr Anthony Ocampo, and Carla Barrientos Now? Let’s find them out. ‘White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch,’ a Netflix documentary, follows the fashion brand’s rise in prominence after Mike Jeffries took over and the accompanying controversies. A class-action lawsuit brought by some of the company’s employees accusing Abercrombie & Fitch of discrimination was one of the more notable ones. Jennifer Sheahan, Dr. Anthony Ocampo, and Carla Barrientos, who were plaintiffs in the lawsuit, are interviewed in the film.
So, if you’re curious about their time working for the company and where they are now, we’ve got you covered.
Must Read: Where is Ex-Abercrombie & Fitch CEO ‘Mike Jeffries’ Now?
Jennifer Sheahan, Dr. Anthony Ocampo, and Carla Barrientos: Who Are They?
Jennifer had been employed at a store near the University of California, Irvine. Employees were advised that if they did not receive a paycheck after the holiday season, they would be fired, according to the episode. Jennifer was one of the staff that was perplexed by what had occurred. She then spoke with the assistant manager, who informed her that someone from corporate would be paying her a visit.
“They said, ‘You need more staff that looks like this,'” Jennifer recalls. They pointed to a poster for Abercrombie & Fitch. “It was a Caucasian model,” says the narrator.
Carla Barrientos, who was about 19 years old at the time and worked at an Abercrombie & Fitch store, experienced something similar. Carla wasn’t allowed many hours at the time, and the ones she did get were late at night. When she pleaded with her manager to book her in the morning, she was told that there were few openings. Carla claimed that she had a friend who consented to swap shifts with her at that point, but the manager refused as well.
“I wasn’t blind,” Carla subsequently said. When I went to the mall to hang out with friends or shop with family during the day, I could see who was working, and they didn’t look like me in terms of skin colour. They were white, still in their twenties like me, but not black. They weren’t Latino in the least. They weren’t Asian at all.” A buddy afterwards speculated that it was because she was black that she wasn’t being booked in the morning.
Another former employee, Anthony, spoke about his time at the fashion house. According to the show, he was told he couldn’t be hired since the store already employed too many Filipinos. He never revealed to them, however, that he was Filipino. “The greeters and the folks who worked in the in-season apparel, most of them white, if not all of them white,” he stated in a 2003 interview. The majority of the folks who worked in the stock room, where no one sees them, were Asian-American, Filipino, Mexican, and Latino.”
Anthony, Carla, and Jennifer were named in a racial and sex discrimination complaint filed by numerous other minority employees against Abercrombie & Fitch in June 2003. In addition to the legal bills, the corporation was compelled to pay the plaintiffs a $40 million settlement.
Abercrombie & Fitch decided to employ diversity recruiters after that. It was also requested that the recruitment procedure, which primarily targeted white fraternities and sororities, be changed. In a similar spirit, the settlement demanded that the company’s marketing, which primarily featured white models, be changed.
Jennifer Sheahan, Dr. Anthony Ocampo, and Carla Barrientos: Where Are They Now?
Jennifer attended veterinary school in Oklahoma after graduating from the University of California, Irvine. She now works at an Irvine veterinary hospital and is passionate about ocular pharmacology and retinal illnesses. Jennifer’s other interests include travelling, photography, and spending time with her family.
Anthony is a writer and Ph.D. scholar based in Los Angeles, California. He has published two novels, one of which is on homosexual men of colour from immigrant families, and has investigated immigration and race issues. Aside from that, Anthony is a sociology associate professor at Cal Poly Pomona in California.
Carla earned her master’s degree in education from California State University in Bakersfield, Kern County. She now works as a programme specialist and a Child Behavior Consultant for Kern County’s Superintendent of Schools. Carla, her husband, Jorge, and their two children live in Bakersfield. “I didn’t want it to happen to anyone else,” she stated of her involvement in the lawsuit. I knew it was wrong, and I was determined to fix it if there was anything I could do about it.”