The Trouble With Role Models

By Nat Hentoff

In New York recently, a coalition of young people from 11 settlement houses let it be known that they would discard their old Nike sneakers at a Fifth Avenue shoe store, The Sultanate of Swoosh.

As David Gonzalez reported in the New York Times, "They are part of a growing movement that has criticized Nike for failing to pay workers in Asian factories a living wage -- about $3 a day in Indonesia, for example -- while charging style-setting urban teenagers upward of $100 for the shoes."

As one of the protesters, Dulani Blake, explained: "Nike goes to different countries so people can work for cheap."

Meanwhile, Andrew Young, a hero of the civil rights movement and former ambassador to the United Nations, has completed a report -- commissioned by Nike -- that does say there is room for improvement in the working conditions at factories manufacturing Nike footwear. But his overall findings are so positive that Nike has celebrated the result of Andrew Young's Asian journey in newspaper ads.

When I called a publicity manager for Nike, she said, "Why, who could possibly question Andrew Young's integrity?"

In the Sept. 8 and 15 New Republic, Stephen Glass -- a journalist whose work I have respected since his college days -- did considerable damage to Mr. Young's credibility ("The Young and the Feckless").

Among the many carefully detailed omissions and distortions in the Young report is the highly embarrassing fact that Young, in talking with Vietnamese workers, used Nike translators. As Stephen Glass notes, Garry Trudeau -- in his widely syndicated comic strip, Doonesbury -- presented a Nike translator rendering "the [Asian] workers' pleas of mistreatment into joyous reports of a labor paradise."

Lest this growing disrespect for Nike become a groundswell, a Nike spokesman visited a New York neighborhood center where the local sneaker protest among kids began. The public relations professional declared: "Nobody has done more than Nike in terms of leadership." He said this without benefit of translation.

The kids were not impressed. It might be a truly educational trip for Andrew Young to visit some of these youth centers. The kids might ask him why, in his report, he did not look at all into whether Nike pays its workers the home country's minimum wage.

Not many youngsters may know of Andrew Young's previous civil rights record, but Michael Jordan is a superhero to kids throughout the nation.

After 13 years as a very effective salesman for Nike sneakers, Jordan has been elevated at the firm. There is a new Nike sub-brand, the JORDAN brand, for which kids will be saving their $20 bills. For his new division, Jordan has recruited other professional basketball stars who, Nike says, represent his "core basketball values."

In the Sept. 9 USA Today, Jordan was asked what he thinks -- as a new corporate executive -- of the growing attacks on Nike because of the working conditions in its Asian factories. Jordan said: "I would certainly investigate it, then deal with what the problems are. Right now, they're not doing anything improper or illegal." Could the White House's Lanny Davis be moonlighting as a counselor to Michael Jordan?

Last year, Jesse Jackson, a colleague of Andrew Young in the Martin Luther King Jr. days, spoke during a Tokyo press conference about the ethical responsibilities of being a role model for America's young. As reported in the Journal of Commerce, "Mr. Jackson said athletes like Mr. Jordan `must be part of the dialogue and be made aware of the conduct' of their sponsors. Today's athletes, he added, should get involved like former tennis great Arthur Ashe, who honored the boycott of South Africa."

Young and Jordan, however, are role models for the free marketplace.

Nike, meanwhile, is issuing further glossy reports about the Asian factories. On Oct. 16, the company released preliminary studies by an MBA student team from Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. Michael Jordan will be glad to know that "Nike contract factory workers can meet basic needs and, in addition, have income for discretionary spending or, in some cases, savings."

This Dartmouth study was commissioned -- surprise! -- by Nike.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee and the Asia Monitor Resource Centre have released quite another report -- this one on Chinese factories producing Nike goods: "Factories consistently violate minimum wage laws; workers who become pregnant are often fired in violation of China's labor law granting workers maternity leave." Also, "gloves are not given to all workers -- seven of whom have lost their fingers."

So much for their hoop dreams.

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