‘Black Lives Matter’ Protesters Took Over a Forever21
A Forever21 store in New York City’s Union Square was ambushed on Saturday by a group of protesters who call themselves “The Never 21 Project.”
Aiming to raise awareness against police brutality and the young black people who’ve lost their lives because of it, the anonymous protesters—posing as Forever21 employees—entered the store and dressed several of the storefront mannequins in T-shirts reading “BLACK LIVES MATTER - never21.com.” They also put up a large banner in one of the second floor windows.
The message-sending tees remained for about 20 minutes—until F21′s actual sales associates noticed and removed them—which was plenty of time for tons of passersby to stop and snap pics of the takeover.
As for how tricky the whole thing was to pull off, apparently… not very. One anonymous Never 21 member told Gothamist that the massive retail outpost was so jam-packed with customers, “no one paid attention to [them]. The door alarm kept going off for people who were trying to make returns.“ …So much for store security, eh?
That’s not to say the feat was easy. “We planned for a long time, and practiced beforehand on mannequins,” explained the protester. “We had the shirts sized large so that they would be easy to slip on.”
Despite what it looked like, an involved Never 21-er assured that the protest wasn’t intended as an attack on Forever21. Rather, it was positioned as “an opportunity for a huge company to stand behind Black Lives Matter.”
This weekend’s brief protest called to mind last Thanksgiving’s #BlackOutBlackFriday social media movement by the Justice for Michael Brown Leadership Coalition, which asked shoppers to boycott Black Friday to show respect for slain Missouri teen Brown.
While we of course support the motivation behind both protests, we can’t help but wonder whether they’ve been slightly misdirected. Wouldn’t Never 21′s actions have made more of an impact if it had targeted a company or brand that outwardly disapproved of the cause it supports? In this circumstance, F21 was nothing but a high-powered pawn. Powerful as this weekend’s stunt was, it’s certainly something to consider.
More from Yahoo Style:
Patti LaBelle Says #BlackLivesMatter on “Empire”
All Grown Up: Zendaya Talks Race in America, Disney, Drake, and Her Red-Hot Career
Ferguson Protesters Boycott Black Friday With #BlackOutBlackFriday
