“If the shirts depicted Mexican or black Americans, Abercrombie would be eaten alive,” Yasuda said.

“It concerns me that if they put anything about other groups they’d be bankrupt in a minute,” said Tam. “They’re taking advantage of the fact that Asian-Americans might not be as organized or militant as other minority groups in America.”

And in a discussion that has been evolving over the e-mail lists of various student groups at Harvard, some have speculated that the company’s actions were a deliberate ploy to garner media attention.

“Abercrombie wants this to happen,” said Ethan Y. Yeh ’02. “They’re not so stupid that they think this wouldn’t be offensive.”

Several students pointed to the company’s controversial advertising in the past, which received media attention, to suggest that the shirts were intended to boost flagging sales.

“This whole racist T-shirt thing is just a last ditch effort to keep the publicity and sales going for them,” Jeff Sheng ’01 wrote in an e-mail to other students who were planning to protest. “To be perfectly honest, Abercrombie is not fooling anyone anymore...they’re yesterday’s hot and today’s what’s not.”

Students planning the protest said they were concerned that action on their part would add to the media hype and raise the company’s profile.

Several also said they doubt that any outrage by Asian-Americans over the t-shirts will affect Abercrombie’s sales, saying that Asian-Americans who are likely to be offended fall outside the company’s target demographic.

Instead, they said a general boycott would be most effective.

Students organizing the protest include members of the Asian American Association, South Asian Alliance, South Asian Women’s Collective, Chinese Student Association and AAB.