------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the April 12, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- BOLD ACTION AGAINST RACIAL PROFILING: "JIM CROW MUST GO, FROM CHEEKTOWAGA TO BUFFALO By Leslie Feinberg Cheektowaga, N.Y. "Jim Crow must go, from Cheektowaga to Buffalo!" This demand, loudly chanted by a predominantly white group of some two dozen protesters, reverberated throughout the Walden Galleria mall in Cheektowaga, N.Y. March 31. Walden Galleria is western New York's biggest shopping mall. According to the owner, Pyramid Corp., 18 million people visit the mall annually. Charges of racism by Buffalo civil-rights leaders and area Black residents are mounting against mall officials, town police and judges. African Americans who shop, drive or socialize in Cheektowaga are coming forward with accounts of racist discrimination and police brutality. "The Black community in Buffalo and outlying areas is roiling with anger and organizing to stop this apartheid system of segregation. That's what this institutionalized racist profiling, discrimination and police brutality is meant to maintain," local International Action Center organizer Bev Hiestand told Workers World. The direct action at the mall grew out of a recent International Women's Day potluck supper organized by the women's committee of the Buffalo IAC, Hiestand explained. The supper drew organizers from the struggle for women's reproductive freedom and activists from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. Monica Moorehead, a national Workers World Party leader, urged people to consider doing something to mark the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. "There was a lot of interest that night about doing something to extend solidarity to the African American community as anti-racist allies," Hiestand said. "We met a couple of nights later and that's when we gave birth to the idea to take the struggle against racism into the mall." On the morning of March 31, the group met in a nearby parking lot and donned T-shirts emblazoned with the words "Stop racist profiling." Once inside the mall, everyone took off their coats so their shirts were visible. They walked in teams four abreast, crisscrossing the mall so that all the shoppers could clearly see their message. As mall security, beefed up by Cheektowaga cops, radioed reports of the protesters' presence to each other, the activists headed for the huge food court. That's where Black youths have reportedly been most harassed and expelled by security officers. Once there, two activists tied an 18-foot banner to the railing facing the food court that read: "Pyramid Corporation: Shopping while Black--No crime!" Security officers--who expel people for leafleting--tried to pass out fliers to the group informing them that they would be arrested if they didn't leave. But the group, refusing to take the leaflets, chanted even louder. Some Black shoppers joined in the anti-Jim-Crow chant. Some white shoppers nodded in agreement. SOLIDARITY IN WORD AND DEED As the Jim Crow busters headed slowly toward the mall exit, chanting all the while, to meet with reporters gathered outside, mall security forces targeted the only Black woman visible in the group of about 20 still inside. A mall security official began pushing and shoving Loretta Renford, a longtime Buffalo activist against racism and police brutality. One of the white activists--who is lesbian and transgendered--immediately pushed him away and kept him physically at bay from Renford. The security official then ordered police to arrest the white woman who defended Renford. But Renford put her arm around the woman and proclaimed to the cops, "No you won't!" Mall security cops brutally forced two local television station camera operators to stop filming the incident. Once outside, the entire group formed a circle around both Renford and the white activist to ensure that neither would be harassed or arrested by cops. Several cops suddenly bolted into a run up to the parking garage when they saw two other anti-racists drop a nine-foot- wide banner over the side. It read "Stop racist profiling." One of the children who took part in the event held up a sign in the parking lot that read: "Booted out for not being bigots." The media, angered by the rough treatment they had received at the hands of security, asked for a news conference. So the group traveled to a nearby Post Office parking lot for interviews. Cheektowaga cops began driving into the parking lot to further harass protesters. But when news cameras swung around to film them, they quickly drove off. Renford told the media about being targeted--the only Black protester store security could see at that point--and roughed up. "The cop that was shoving me, what came to my mind is: You see how they put on their uniforms and get this arrogance about them? When he put his hands on me he was just wanting me to escalate. Do you see how quick they are to be violent?" Renford told a Workers World reporter: "I watched the faces of some of the shoppers in the mall. Some of them with children looked horrified like they wanted to shield their faces and ears. I wonder if they stop to think about the horror and trauma that is done to African American children when their parents or loved ones are stopped and dehumanized and called all sorts of names and beaten. "When people say racism doesn't exist or that it is okay to put people in their places--do they understand the real trauma that is done to our children?" Renford concluded, telling reporters, "Racism must be kicked to the curb." The anti-Jim-Crow action was the top news story in Buffalo that day. It received coverage on television Channels 2 and 4, WBEN radio and in the Sunday Buffalo News. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
