Black Lives Matter Protesters Stock Forever 21 With 'Never 21' T-Shirts

[KamaAina]

http://gothamist.com/2015/04/27/black_lives_matter_forever_21.php

Posing as employees at Forever 21 Union Square, a group of Black Lives Matter protestors managed to clothe the front-window mannequins in "Black Lives Matter/Never 21" T-shirts on Saturday afternoon. Protesters also dropped a banner with the same message across the store's second floor windows, and stocked several clothing racks with "Black Lives Matter" T-shirts.

The action was carried out by a group of anonymous protesters who go by the name The Never 21 Project. According to a statement issued by the group, their goal was to draw attention to the number of "young black lives that have been lost to police violence before ever reaching 21-years-old, who were never afforded a true childhood... by the police."

The Never 21 Project's website, which mimics Forever 21's white font and black and yellow color scheme, features mini-biographies of kids and teenagers who have lost their lives at the hands of the police, with emphasis on their ages: Aiyana Jones (7), Michael Brown (18), Tamir Rice (12), and Trayvon Martin (17). A statement on the homepage reads:...

This morning, an anonymous Never 21 organizer recounted how the action unfolded inside the store. "It was kind of the opposite of shoplifting," he explained. "We called it shop gifting, because we were putting shirts into the store rather than taking them out." First a banner team, including a videographer and a legal observer, walked up to the second floor to hang the banner. The mannequin team entered as the banner team was on its way out, followed by three more protesters tasked with adding T-shirts to the clothing racks.

[msongs]

1. interesting way to market the merchandise they are trying to sell. nt