Letters

LETTERS

Don't Boycott Bars; Sit In!

My immediate reaction to your [Barbara Ransby's] article in this month's AGENDA (September 1990) is that any protest to the Main Street incidents should be one of visibility, not retreat. You even open your piece with reference to sit-ins. It seems to me that nothing would make these business-owners and their snootier patrons happier than for student activists, people of color, the homeless and non-upscale folk to stay away, leaving a clientele of mundane yuppies interspersed with one or two fashionable ethnic persons (for ambience). We both know that those in the latter group will not participate in a boycott in numbers significant enough to hurt Main Street's operations. 

I would rather see a group of 20 or so "undesirables" engage in an active protest as follows: Go to the Full Moon or Quality Bar. Ask to be seated near the entrance, or another visible location. Order the minimum. Enjoy and hour or so of orderly, but relaxed dining and conversation. Return regularly, repeating the above steps. 

This will get the attention of the restauranteurs and cops who are, now that the incidents have been publicized, probably inclined to be more cautious about ejecting patrons without cause. It may also cause the "desirables" to stay away- an induced boycott, if you will- a sit-in and a boycott simultaneously. 

What do you think? 

Arita B. Sims

ANN ARBOR