News Editor Jurnee Louder and Photography Editor Julie Alpaugh attended the Anti-Discrimination March in Downtown Athens. As the protesters chanted, Louder reflected on her own experiences with Downtown discrimination. Photo by Julie Alpaugh.
By JURNEE LOUDER – News Editor
News Editor Jurnee Louder reflects on her own experiences with discrimination in Downtown Athens and how it can be stopped.
On Jan. 18, I was able to attend the Anti-Discrimination March in Downtown Athens. It was impromptu, but I am extremely glad I went.
In a sense, it made me feel like I wasn’t alone.
The goal of the event was to bring awareness to the racial discrimination that often happens in downtown businesses.
When I was a bit younger, my brothers– William, 30, and Wallace, 26– would tell me stories about times when they went there and tried to get into different bars. They had their license and they weren’t looking for trouble, but employees still gave them a hard time.
One time, Wallace was wearing a hat. As he waited in line, an employee stopped him.
“You can’t wear that hat,” they would say.
Wallace told me the next time he would go, he would leave the hat, but something else would be wrong. Once, they said his v-neck t-shirt wasn’t allowed.
Everytime he went, there would be another reason not to let him in, while white people, who who were wearing the same thing, would go right through without any problems.
When my brother told me this, I often wondered, “Well, why don’t you just not go?”
He would reply, “Where else am I supposed to go?
I still didn’t understand why he wouldn’t boycott them, but I left the matter alone. Eventually, when I was old enough to understand, I started to realize that discrimination was all around me.
I remember reading an article online in October of 2015. The Confederate-themed bar, General Beauregard, was heavily scrutinized for naming their drink after a racial slur. The bar closed shortly after, but then reopened again.
This disappoints me because I know things like this aren’t new. It’s disappointing because while I want to support local, this only happens to me and my friends and my brothers in the stores that are local.
I understand my brothers’ dilemma a lot more now, and I see the necessity in protests like the Anti-Discrimination March.
Downtown should be for everyone, especially for a town that is so diverse. No one should feel uncomfortable when walking into a store because of their race.
If Downtown is truly there to serve the people of Athens, then I’d like to see businesses act as such.
So, I’ll continue to go to all the marches and protests that I can to fix this problem. The government needs to know that we won’t stand for this kind of behavior any more.
