MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Four women went to a mall east of Memphis, Tennessee, to challenge a policy that went viral after an incident involving black men was captured on video.
The women said they came to the Wolfchase Galleria in Cordova with their hoodies on because they wanted to prove a point about racial profiling.
At times, they said they even walked around with the hoodies on their heads.
This photo of the women wearing hoodies inside the mall went viral after they posted it on Facebook.
We four white women walked more than a mile through the Wolfchase Galleria wearing our hoodies and our privilege, just...
Posted by Shannon Arthur on Saturday, November 10, 2018
“It just struck a chord on us that we could do that,” said Sherry Ennis, one of the women. “We could walk through there, we could take pictures, we could wear whatever we wanted.”
This came after they saw the viral video captured by former journalist Kevin McKenzie.
McKenzie said at least four African-American men were escorted out of the mall for violating the mall's code of conduct.
Security guards could be heard saying in the video that the men were being removed from the mall because they were wearing hoodies.
The code of conduct policy for the mall states people must wear appropriate clothing. It doesn’t specify what type of clothing.
“There’s even apparel sold in there that a certain segment of society is not allowed to wear,” Ennis said.
Ennis and her friends said they walked more than a mile at the mall just to see what would happen if they wore hoodies.
This picture is even getting rapper Yo Gotti’s attention. He said, “These women helped bring light to the double standard we face in our community and across America.”
“We pulled them up on occasion and we were approached very politely and asked to remove them – that it was obscuring our identities, so we took them down,” Ennis said.
McKenzie said he never saw the men in the video with their hoods over their heads when the incident happened.
“We’re not against law enforcement, no rules at all, but if they’re enforced equally, I’m up for that,” said Ennis. “And we made a total point that it’s not enforced equally.”
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