A Bakersfield woman is revisiting the racism she says she faced while working at the clothing retailer in a new Netflix documentary premiering on April 19.

“I wore the clothes, I liked the clothes,” said Carla Barrientos. “I liked for them to be tight-fitting, I wanted to show my belly button, that was me at 19.”

Barrientos got a job at Abercrombie & Fitch at the Valley Plaza Mall when she was 19. She soon noticed Abercrombie’s sexy marketing sold one clear message to young adults of color.

“The marketing doesn’t look like me at all,” said Barrientos. “The employees that worked there don’t look like me, something is going on.”  

Something was going on, Barrientos says the companies’ racist practices ‘were so ingrained in how they operated that it was ‘disheartening’ for her to work there.

The new Netflix documentary, ‘White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie and Fitch’ explore the systemic racism the retailer operated on for years.

“Everyone that I come across has an Abercrombie story,” said Barrientos. “Whether it was you worked there or didn’t get hired.”

In the documentary, Carla revisits the few months she worked as an Abercrombie employee in Bakersfield. A time when the pressure to fit in led Carla to gaslight herself.