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Hey, everyone~ We just got back from the Columbus rally. To our surprise, despite the lack of initial support from students in the beginning, it was actually a pretty big success and we got a lot of incredibly positive feedback and visibility. Details: We started out protesting at the Abercrombie at Easton Town Center, an extremely upscale, popular, outdoor, and visible mall. Shortly after arriving, we were rudely asked to leave by the store managers and mall security guards because were were protesting on 'private property'. In addition to asking the protesters to leave, all Asians that were present in the store and not part of the protest were also asked to leave as well. When we asked them why they asked asian non-protesters to leave as well, they replied that they did not have to give us a reason because it was private property. This was an incredibly blatant sign of racism and even admist recent events, we were taken back by the way they reacted. As a result, we left Easton and also had some extra protesters join us as a result. We then took our cause to outside of City Center Mall in downtown Columbus. To our pleasant surprise, we got a lot of great responses from passerbys. We had a significant number of passerbys (mostly African-American and Hispanic) join us in our efforts as well to pass out fliers, hold up signs, and talk to inform people of the issue. We noticed that most of the minorities we encountered throughout our protest today were incredibly interested and in support of the cause, whereas most of the white population we encountered merely ignored us or stopped to explain to us that they did not see anything wrong with Abercrombie and that we were merely overreacting. It was incredibly eye-opening and thought provoking for all of us. As much as we would have liked to protest at the National Headquarters in New Albany (a Columbus suburb) today, we decided this morning that that wouldn't be the best idea because 1) it is on private property 2) very, very, very little visibility 3) it's the weekend. Despite slight drawbacks in the beginning and last-minute changes in plans, I definitely feel that we got our point across on the home turf of Abercrombie and Fitch. We got plenty of press coverage as well, which we were pleased with. The Ohio State University coordinators of today's event will be meeting again before Sunday night to discuss a follow-up to the protest. Also, I have recieved emails suggesting that petitions be sent to protesters in Columbus so that we can hand-deliver them to the headquarters ourselves. If that's the case, please feel free to do so, and we'll do exactly that. An address and contact information is included below. Once again, thanks everybody for all your efforts. Good luck with preparations throughout this week. Regards, Jennifer Choi c/o Abercrombie Campaign
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