【聯合報╱By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN╱陳世欽譯】
When Businesses Face Bias Charges
“My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a significant season ticket base.”
That was one of the offensive quotes in an email that Bruce Levenson, the owner of the Atlanta Hawks basketball team, sent to his colleagues two years ago. That email — and an internal investigation — pushed Mr. Levenson to apologize and put the team up for sale.
The email has also ignited a conversation among leaders in corporate America and on Wall Street . What is business and what is bias, subtle or otherwise?
Discrimination remains a real issue in the business world. Studies show that Wall Street, for example, long charged African- Americans and Hispanics higher interest rates on mortgages than whites.
Mr. Levenson appeared to be actively seeking to replace his predominantly black audience with a whiter crowd.
Mr. Levenson self-reported his email to the National Basketball Association earlier this year. The note was intended to explain why his team’s season- ticket and merchandise sales were so low compared with those of other teams. Mr. Levenson wrote, “I start looking around our arena during games and notice the following,” ticking off a list that includes “it’s 70 pct black,” “the cheerleaders are black,” and “the music is hip-hop.”
Some people describ ed his comments as worse than the racist rant of Donald Sterling, who was forced to sell the Los Angeles Clippers and was barred from the league for life.
Yet others suggested that Mr. Levenson’s remarks were those of a rational executive. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the former N.B.A. star who has long written about race, agreed. “Levenson is a businessman asking reasonable questions about how to put customers in seats,” Mr. Abdul-Jabbar wrote on Time magazine’s website. “If his arena was filled mostly with whites and he wanted to attract blacks, wouldn’t he be asking how they could de-emphasize white culture and bias toward white contestants and cheerleaders? ”
Autry J. Pruitt, a syndicated radio host, said he was initially furious but changed his mind after he read the email in full. “Although parts of it are uncomfortable to read, nothing struck me as racist or out of line.”
In another part of Mr. Levenson’s email, he seems to criticize racism: “On fan sites I would read comments about how dangerous it is around” the arena . “I don’t know of a mugging or even a pickpocket incident. This was just racist garbage. When I hear some people saying the arena is in the wrong place I think it is code for there are too many blacks at the games.”
Mr. Levenson’s remarks are a reminder of the challenge companies have when seeking out customers based on income, race, religion or another demographic. Companies can now more sharply focus their marketing by taking advantage of web search and social media . The line between singling out specific demographics and discrimination is a fine one .
The former chief executive of the clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, Michael S. Jeffries, was vilified for saying he hired only good-looking employees “because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don’t market to anyone other than that . Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”
The co-founder of Lululemon, Chip Wilson, was forced to step down after he commented, “Quite frankly, some women’s bodies just actually don’t work” for his company’s yoga pants. Many women considered his comment offensive. Mr. Levenson later called his comments “inflammatory nonsense.” He added: “We all may have subtle biases and preconceptions when it comes to race, but my role as a leader is to challenge them, not to validate or accommodate those who might hold them.”
The business world should take note.
中譯
「我的理論是，黑人群眾嚇跑白人。有錢的黑人球迷不夠多，無法構成球季票房收入的可觀基礎。」
這是美國職籃亞特蘭大老鷹隊老闆李文森二年前給同仁的電子郵件中，具冒犯意味的言論之一。這封電郵與內部調查迫使他公開道歉，並將老鷹隊脫手。
這封電郵也在美國企業領袖間與華爾街引起討論。企業是什麼？什麼是隱微或其他種類的偏見？
在工商界，歧視問題仍然確實存在。例如，研究顯示華爾街對非裔與西語裔美國人收取的房貸利率一向高於白人。
李文森似乎積極尋求以非黑人取代黑人占絕大多數的觀眾。
李文森今年稍早主動向美國國家籃球協會（NBA）提報這封電郵，解釋為何老鷹隊球季票房與商品銷售收入遠不如他隊。他指出，「我開始在球賽進行時留意我們的主場周圍與觀眾」，發現，「70%觀眾是黑人」，「啦啦隊是黑人」，「音樂是嘻哈」。
有些人認為他說的話比洛杉磯快艇隊老闆史特林具有種族歧視意味的談話更嚴重。史特林最後被迫賣掉快艇隊，並且終身不得再加入NBA。然而另有些人認為，身為球隊老闆，李文森的談話不失理性。長期撰文討論種族問題的前NBA明星球員天勾賈霸同意這種見解。他在時代雜誌網站撰文指出：「李文森是個生意人，提出如何吸引球迷進場看球的合理問題。如果他的主場球迷以白人居多，而他想吸引黑人球迷，難道他不會問該如何才能淡化白人文化，以及對白人對手與啦啦隊的偏見嗎？」
聯播廣播節目主持人普魯特表示，他起初很火，讀完電郵後改變了看法。他說：「我認為，電郵部分內容令人不快，但它並無種族歧視或脫軌之處。」
在電郵另一部分，李文森似在批評種族歧視。他說：「我可以在球迷網站讀到主場周圍何其危險的留言。我從未聽聞搶劫或甚至扒手行竊的事件。這是種族主義垃圾言論。如果聽到有人說場館地點不對，意思是指賽場黑人太多。」
李文森的言論使人明白，根據收入、種族、宗教或其他人口結構尋找顧客時，美國企業仍然面臨挑戰。如今，企業可以透過網路搜尋與社群網站縮小市場行銷鎖定的範圍。找出特定顧客群與歧視之間只是一線之隔。
美國青少年服飾零售商Abercrombie & Fitch前執行長傑福瑞斯曾經說，他只雇用長相好看的員工，因為「長相好看的人會吸引其他長相好看的人。我們行銷的對象是長相好看的人。我們不會向其他消費者行銷。我們具有排他性嗎？絕對如此。」這段話使他受到痛批。
加拿大瑜伽運動服品牌「露露檸檬」共同創辦人威爾森曾經說，「坦白講，有些女性的身體實在不適合」該公司的瑜伽服。他因此言而被迫辭職。許多女性認為這番話構成冒犯。
李文森稍後說，他的言論是「足以令人發怒的蠢話」。他說：「涉及種族，我們可能都會有隱微的偏見與成見。不過我身為一名領導者，應該要挑戰它們，而不是去肯定或附和可能懷有這些偏見的人。」
企業界都該多加注意。
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