Six Flags apologizes for questioning guests' shirts supporting racial justice
Six Flags Over Georgia is expressing "deep regret" over an incident last week in which a security guard stopped a mother and her three children because they were wearing shirts with slogans associated with the Black Lives Matters movement.
The theme park's mea culpa came after Maya Miller took her kids to the amusement park outside Atlanta last Friday decked out in shirts bearing phrases including "I can't breathe," "We tired," Stop killing us" and "Free-ish since 1865" in honor of Juneteenth, she said in a Facebook post.
On their way in, she said, the family members were stopped by a security guard, who told them to wait while she checked with a supervisor to see if their shirts were a problem.
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Posted by Maya C. Gladney on Friday, June 19, 2020
After telling the guard she wasn't waiting as she and her children had done nothing wrong, she was told that they might have to leave the park if anyone complained, relayed Miller, who told a local news outlet that the incident had ruined the outing. "I didn't know if she did call the police," she said of the guard. "I saw the fear and confusion in my children's eyes."
Their experience was also described on Facebook by the children's father, Steven Rashaad Miller, who in a widely shared post called the incident a "prime example of over policing of black people."
PLEASE READ and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SHARE...So my sons went to six flags over Georgia today with their mother and a...
Posted by Steven Rashaad Miller on Friday, June 19, 2020
In a statement to CBS MoneyWatch, Six Flags Over Georgia said it deeply regretted the incident and "strongly condemns any form of racism or intolerance."
The park's president spoke to the Miller family and offered an apology, as well as an invitation to return as "special guests," Six Flags added.
The shirts worn by the family are allowed in the park and "the family was never asked to leave," stated Six Flags, now in the process of conducting diversity and inclusiveness training company-wide.
Miller is meeting with the park's president on Saturday — and looked forward to having a discussion about what occurred, she told CBS MoneyWatch in a text message.