Four white women took a stand, wearing hoodies inside the Wolfchase Galleria mall, to prove that racism is real.
Earlier this month a group of young black men say they were harassed by security for violating the malls alleged “hoodie policy.” This past weekend, the women challenged the policy and posted their results on social media.
Two of the four women told Local 24 News they did what they did to stand up for what is right. They wore hoodies in the mall and say they had no problems.
The picture posted on social media. The woman say they walked for more than a mile around the Wolfchase mall wearing hoodies, sometimes wearing them up, sometimes down. They say sometimes security politely asked them to take their hoods down and they did.
The women say they did it to prove a point that some members of the community are constantly harassed while others are given a pass.
Earlier this month, newspaper reporter Kevin Mckenzie was arrested and booked for trespassing after he recorded video of an incident between mall security and the young African-American men.
After the incident, Mckenzie said this: “I never saw a single hoodie up. When I saw them, I simply followed because again as a black man in America we have a problem in retail facilities.”
The mall’s code of conduct doesn’t actually mention anything about hoodies but does require appropriate clothing.
Rapper Yo Gotti even tweeted about the women, saying, “They helped bring light to the double standard we face in our community and across America.”
“I think white folks should be using their privilege to expose some of these things,” said Paul Garner with the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center. He added, “Hopefully the mall will take this under consideration and do the right thing and revise the policy. It would be great to see them issue apologies to the folks who were targeted and mistreated under this so-called policy.”
There has been some backlash from posting the picture. One of the women was going to do an interview with us, but when her employer found out, she says her boss put a stop to it and silenced her.
Wolfchase Galleria issued the following statement:
“Wolfchase Galleria is focused on providing a safe environment for all customers and employees. We require customers to not conceal their identity while on mall property as a matter of public safety. It is important that our security cameras and security personnel be able to see the faces of everyone on property. Mall security personnel respectfully ask all customers concealing their identity to conform to the policy. Police are called if a customer becomes belligerent. Our security personnel are obligated and directed to enforce our policies in a fair and consistent manner.”
