Statement by Twin Cities Refuse & Resist!
The Twin Cities chapter of Refuse & Resist! called a demonstration on October 4 to protest the curfew on youth at the Mall of America on Friday and Saturday nights. We oppose this curfew for two reasons:
Rather than dealing with any specific behaviors, all youth below the age of 16 are affected by this policy. Without commiting any crime, youth are being banned from a public meeting space. This is discrimination and it criminalizes our youth. Instead of lending validity to a perception that equates young people with crime, mall management should be making more recreational outlets available to youth and should be educating the public in positive ways about youth.
Mall officials have blamed drops in sales on the number of youth in the mall, rather than on the stagnant economy. In fact, many of the youth-oriented businesses in the mall rely on sales to these youth and will likely suffer as a result of this ban. In addition, a number of parents have expressed their outrage about this policy and have stated that they will no longer shop at the Mall of America.
Through the media, the mall has expressed concern about "gang activity." Yet, there have been no gang-related incidents at the Mall of America. "Gang" is really a code word for youth of color. This curfew is a callous attempt to appeal to certain segments of people who are disturbed when they see groupings of youth, especially youth of color, and who equate these groupings with gangs and crime. Rather than making the effort to educate people and to work through a difficult problem, mall officials are pandering to the racist and ageist leanings of one group by taking away the rights of another.
While this new policy may appear race neutral, considering this mall's history, it is likely that this policy will be applied in a racially discriminatory way. Recently, the mall settled a case out of court that involved harassment of African American youth by the security staff. Prior to that, there were numerous complaints about the mall passing out "rules of conduct" sheets to people of color, but not whites, at entranceways. When the mall first opened, an African American woman employee was fired for wearing her hair in cornrows, a traditional African hairstyle. In addition, we have just received a report that due to space and traffic constraints, the mall terminated an agreement with one of the three taxicab companies that serve the mall. The company that was axed is the only Black-owned company of the three.
Already, we have received reports of racist application of the new curfew on the very first night of the new policy. One young African American woman, age 16, was ejected from the mall while in the midst of making a purchase. She had a picture ID that included her age but because it was not the type of ID allowed by the mall, she was escorted out. As she was brought briskly to the door, she observed several young white males entering without being carded at all. She attested to this incident on CNN and through local media. There was also an incident in which security guards scuffled with two African American males, age 25, who came to the mall with their children but were later arrested for refusing to show "proper" indentification. These incidents are reminicent of South African townships under apartheid and should not be occuring at public malls in the U.S.
Refuse & Resist has made a national call for October to be a month of resistance to right wing attacks. This call a generated a groundswell of response from groups and individuals around the country. While this curfew is not a right wing attack _per se_ it is based on a backward ideology that criminalizes youth, especially youth of color. Mall management claims to be taking this step so that people (meaning white middle class people) will feel comfortable at the mall. It is important that we let the mall management know that they are not doing this in our name! Therefore, we are proud that this is our first local action of the Month of Resistance.
Other Month of Resistance activities include an action at the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of habeas corpus; National Coming Out Day actions; a march for immigrant rights on October 12 in Washington, D.C.; the National Day of Protest Against Police Brutality on October 22; a National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers on October 26; teach-ins; and other local actions across the country. All of these events are designed to allow people with various political beliefs to come together to build a movement of resistance to right wing attacks.
Twin Cities Refuse & Resist!
2441 Lyndale Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55405
612-649-4778
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305 Madison Ave., Suite 1166, New York, NY 10165
Phone: 212-713-5657
email: info@refuseandresist.org