Racism Report 2003 - Zara

Page 52 Focus Issue: Racism and the Law Racism Report 2003ZARA wrote more than 80 letters of complaint during this campaign and reported 50 cases under the IntroductoryProvisions to the Code of Administrative Procedure. In some cases ZARA received positive answers. For example thecompany Macalka und Peinlich sent the following letter to ZARA:„Dear Maria Fernanda Perez Solla, We regret to have received your letter of 25 July 2003. We would like to make thefollowing statement: it was never our intention to discriminate against anybody in our advertisement placed in theKurier. You are right that the expression „foreigner“ makes it appear so. We would like to emphasises that we also receivedsome calls from foreigners and these have also been given interviews on the basis of their qualifications and not on thebasis of their nationality. If we have discriminated against anyone with our advertisement, we would like to apologiseformally. We agree to refrain from placing advertisements with exclusive specifications. Best regards, Michael Wilfert“The company Josef Brötzner GmbH also wrote ZARA an apology:„Dear Pérez Solla, We formally apologise for the advertisement which certainly did not appear in our style. Thestructure of our staff makes it clear that we do not distinguish between Austrians and foreigners. In any case wecan assure you that in future there will be no advertisements with exclusive specifications from our company. Bestregards, Josef Brötzner GmbH“Experiences and results of the campaignIt is often not known how decisions were reached about the advertisements and what results they had. Many authoritiessay there is a lack of staff to deal with enquiries in administrative legal procedures and they must use officialdiscretion and they refuse to give information about the outcome of proceedings.In one case it is known that a fine of 175 Euro was imposed. In many cases proceedings are not completed. Inanother case in which the person charged wrote a letter of apology, no fine was imposed.„Side-effect“ of the campaign: verbalisation of prejudicesAs a result of the „No Foreigners“ campaign the ZARA counselling team was confronted with various negative reactions,mostly by telephone. Foreigners were described by representatives of the companies receiving letters of complaintas „people with a different mentality“ or even as „lazy“. Some of them said that foreigners in general don‘t speakGerman, are not well educated etc. These examples indicate some of the prejudices at the root of discrimination inadvertisements. The advertisements criticised in the ZARA campaign very clearly have to do with the non-acceptanceof foreigners and the prejudices and other disapproving attitudes towards „foreigners“.We believe it is very important to inform employers and property agents about the relevant legal regulations andalso, in cases of a lack of understanding, to act against discrimination by reporting it. In this way it will hopefully beunderstood in Austria that racism is not a personal opinion and also not a trivial offence but that racist discriminationis legally punishable and costs.Maria Perez-Solla and Verena Krausneker,Dr. jur., ZARA coordinator of the campaign and Dr. phil. / Editor Racism Report 2003 Advertisement