After a Black teen was arrested at a Tennessee mall for violating a hoodie ban, a group of white women visited the shopping center to prove a point.
The four women went to Memphis' Wolfchase Galleria wearing hoodies after they saw a viral video of the teen’s arrest for violating the policy, WHBQ reports. As we reported, a group of Black teens were followed by law enforcement officials and removed from the mall. One was later arrested along with a Black former journalist who filmed the encounter.
The white women who visited the mall in their hoodies had no police interaction and were not arrested.
“It just struck a chord on us that we could do that,” Sherry Ennis, one of the women, said. “We could walk through there, we could take pictures, we could wear whatever we wanted.”
When the women put their hoods over their head, they were respectfully asked to uncover their heads.
“We pulled them up on occasions, and we were approached very politely and asked to remove them – that it was obscuring our identities, so we took them down,” Ennis added.
Shannon Arthur, another woman from the group, wrote about the experience on Facebook. Her post went viral.
"There’s no question that some members of our community are constantly harassed and traumatized where those with less melanin are given a pass," Arthur wrote. "We must do better."
According to former journalist Kevin McKenzie, the man who captured the teen's arrest and who was also arrested, at least four Black men have been arrested for wearing hoodies at the mall.
After the arrests of McKenzie and the unnamed Black teen, Wolfchase issued a statement defending its dress code and the arresting officers:
“We require customers to not conceal their identity while on mall property as a matter of public safety," a spokesperson said. "An MPD officer repeatedly requested the individual to remove his ‘hoodie.’ He did not comply with this directive and was removed from the mall.”
Ennis insists she and her friends are pro-law enforcement but believes the rules should be enforced across the board.
“We’re not against law enforcement, no rules at all, but if they’re enforced equally, I’m up for that,” she said. “And we made a total point that it’s not enforced equally.”
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