Today, Sarah Redpath and I distributed information leaflets outside the “Bodies: The Exhibition” entrance at the Southpoint Mall in Durham, North Carolina. Sarah has launched an exciting campaign to educate people about the deeply disturbing human rights implications of this for-profit show.
It was a blistering hot Sunday. Clearly, many families had decided to escape the heat by seeing the plastinated corpses of Chinese people who never knew that their remains would be used to make money.
Sarah had leafletted the day before. Within 20 minutes, she had been told to leave by a private security guard. Although Southpoint is a “public space” when it comes to spending money, if you choose to express an opinion or deliver free information, malls instantly become private.
If we had actually been on the city streets the mall is built to evoke — with its tobacco-brick facades, outdoor walkways and fountains — circulating leaflets would be protected as free speech. But since this is actually a private mall, the minute anyone chooses to express an opinion, they are asked to leave or are arrested.
In contrast, a protest of the exhibit in Amsterdam included individual crosses for each of the bodies. The crosses were on the public sidewalk outside the hall where the Bodies exhibit was housed.
Amazingly, we were able to hand out information for almost an hour before the first guard showed up. While most people either declined a flyer or took one politely (and some even turned around and chose not to visit the show), some passers by were very hostile. One woman, who had already bought a ticket, called me a “f___g idiot” and said she wanted to see me flayed and put on display as part of the show.
Issues?
Sarah was eventually cited and banned from Southpoint for six months. The private security company actually got a Durham County sheriff to show up. As Sarah explained what we were doing, he threatened to arrest her for “disturbing the peace.” Then the security guard took her photograph, saying that she would be “trespassing” if she stepped on Southpoint property while the ban was in force.
Luckily, they ignored me until Sarah left. When the guard asked for my name to write a citation, I refused to give it. At the time, I was seated at one of the pleasant outdoor tables reading Marshall Meyer’s “You Are My Witness,” a book of this famous Argentine rabbi’s thoughts on human rights and the Argentine dirty war.
Believe me, nothing could have been more fun or satisfying!
Once he trotted off for reinforcements, I collected the teens who were the cause of my delay and skedaddled. As much as I would relish being banned from the mall, I think I’ll try to organize something for next week — a not so fond farewell to “Bodies” before it leaves for Pittsburgh.
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Thank you again Robin (and teens!) for joining me. I’m glad there are others out there who are willing to ask questions like “who are these people” and “how did they get here”? I was glad to see a few people who wanted to understand more and were considering the information.