| Nearly a hundred community members who shop at the Aurora Mall joined together earlier this week on the steps of the Aurora City Building to call on the Aurora City Council to open public hearings into ongoing issues of racial profiling and discrimination at the Aurora Mall. Many youth came from around the Denver and Aurora area to convene the speak-out and testify to the personal stories of discrimination they have faced while shopping at the mall.
The action stems from growing concerns by civil rights groups and community organizations throughout the country over mall owner Simon Property Group’s business practices, which lead to a “separate and unequal” shopping experience for minority customers and have a negative impact on local communities of color.
“I’m twenty years old and have spent almost $10,000 at the Aurora mall on clothes and gifts over the years and this is how I and my family and community get treated? The Aurora Mall is a civil rights disaster and it’s time for that to stop,” said Jamal Miller, of Aurora, a community organizer with the Colorado Progressive Coalition.
In 2004 a leasing agent at the Town Center at Aurora revealed the mall’s business plan: “We want to reduce the negative, um, aspects of the Center -- one of them is the young, black customer.” After negative publicity, Simon Property Group promised to make amends for the statement. But a new report recently released by Colorado ACORN documents a disturbing pattern of racial profiling and discriminatory practices that continues to this day.
“It is us, our kids, and our young, African-American and Latino adults that are being followed by security, accused of stealing, and kicked out of the mall for the clothes on our backs. It would be easy for us to just not shop at a mall that does not want our business, but if they are allowed to get away with it, we are concerned that other malls would do the same thing. Not to mention what they are doing is just plain offensive and wrong,” said ACORN leader Brazyl Carroll.
The community groups whom organized this week’s event, Colorado ACORN and Colorado Progressive Coalition (CPC), are diverse, membership run organizations of low- and moderate- income families working for racial justice, whose members are among those affected by racial profiling and discrimination at the mall.
“This is a mall property owner (Simon Property Group, Inc.) that got $15 million in tax breaks from the taxpayer citizens of Aurora to renovate the mall and treat the people of the community like this,” said ACORN member, De Phillips. “The city council welcomed them with open arms, now they should be the ones to hold them accountable.”
Ty Shelton, a 16 year old shopper from Aurora and CPC member, asked, “Why can’t I walk through the mall without getting looked at or approached by a security guard like I’m doing something wrong?”
Shoppers are not the only witnesses or victims to acts of profiling; former mall workers are also coming out and sharing information about what they saw. Ashleah Howard, CPC member, said she spent “fourteen months working at the mall and I witnessed countless acts of discrimination and watched security guards kick out more minorities and youth when they are the least of our worries.”
ACORN and CPC are calling on Simon Property Group to implement the following changes so that ALL shoppers at the Aurora mall can have an equal and enjoyable shopping experience:
- Hire a qualified organization to conduct racial sensitivity training for mall staff and parent volunteers
- Write and enforce a policy that explicitly prohibits racial discrimination and profiling
- Eliminate the pieces of mall regulations that are used by mall staff for racial profiling, especially rules regarding ‘gang related apparel’ and Family Night.
- Implement a formal complaint process for shoppers to report future instances of racial discrimination
The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado is also very concerned about the issue and is currently investigating the complaints ACORN has filed with the City of Aurora’s Human Relations Commission. |
