Forsyth Park Cafe Update

The woman who submitted the story about the Forsyth Cafe employee sent us an update. It seems the business is on track for doing the right thing and supporting its patrons!

You can read the update here.

Forsyth Park Cafe Not That Classy?

You would think that with the Mansion on Forsyth managing the Forsyth Park Cafe, they would know how to hire classy workers. Not so much.

Today at around 1:30pm, I'm walking home through the park with my groceries. I have my work clothes and sunglasses on. As I'm passing the fountain heading west, I see this guy up ahead of me. He exits out a back door of the Forsyth Cafe and heads away from me. He looks back over his shoulder and notices me walking in the distance behind him. He keeps looking back over his shoulder and alters his course so he's heading in the same direction I am. I keep trying to mind my business, looking straight ahead, not making eye contact. He looks back a few more times and chooses a seat right where I'm about to walk by him... as you can see from the pics, it's not a very comfortable seat. There were plenty of open benches around the area. Since he kept looking back at me and since he altered his course, I'm pretty sure his seat of choice was deliberate so he could get my attention. I thought to myself, "Here it comes." and not a moment later, he tries to get my attention.

He calls to me, "If I weren't on break, I'd sure love to carry those bags." While that is a catcall (and a bit patronizing of him to assume without asking me if I even needed help), it wasn't that bad in my opinion, so I called back, without looking back over my shoulder, "I don't need it!"

If this man were a true gentleman, he would have been able to accept a woman's "no" gracefully and gone about his business. Not this guy. He isn't a gentleman, he just pretends to be one for the first five seconds. He's a fraud.

He starts mocking me, ranting about how I'm "feisty" (even more patronizing!), and talks about my walk and my body. It's really hard to make the whole sentences out because I had walked a bit ahead by now, but I was catching words here and there.

I have experienced street harassment of all kinds in Savannah for a long time, and I'm fed up with it. I deserve to feel safe and non-harassed in the very park I help pay for! This was one of those last straws, so I stopped, walked back toward him and told him that what he was doing was street harassment. He pretended to be dumb and kept saying "For speaking to you?!" over and over, like a broken record. I explained that making sexual comments about women and trying to force them to interact with him unsolicited, and making women feel unsafe is all considered street harassment. I told him that it is not a respectful way to speak to women. He kept repeating his stupid broken record phrase. I kept repeating that it was street harassment. He then starts insulting me under his breath. I told him that if he did not stop speaking, I would talk to his employer, because women should not be treated like this.

He says, "I know what you are." I pull my camera out and take two pictures. As I'm walking away, I hear him call me a bitch under his breath. He says some more insults, but by now I'm too far away again to hear them. You know, if he's that bad about taking "no" from a woman who is just walking by, I'd hate to think of what he'll do to the next woman that turns him down for sex. He seems to have a huge ego problem when it comes to women denying him.

All this while he was on the clock for the Forsyth Cafe! He's even wearing his work uniform and his black apron. I'm going to go talk to the managers with my boyfriend this weekend. And I'm bringing the pictures with me. I hope Forsyth Cafe is helpful, so it will just be the individual that's a bad egg, and not the company as a whole. I will e-mail HollaBack an update on what happens. Thanks for being here for me to vent. It makes me really sad to know this wouldn't have happened if I were a guy.

UPDATE: I wanted to write back and let you know I spoke to someone at Forsyth Cafe. My boyfriend and I went and talked to someone named "DeNatto" or "Denato" on Saturday. I didn't catch the spelling of his name, sorry! He was a really sympathetic and helpful person. He asked me if there was anything they could do for me. I stressed that what I wanted most was for management to have a discussion with the employee. "Denato" (Sorry for the spelling again!) agreed that it wasn't appropriate and I should be able to just walk home through the park minding my own business. He said the discussion would happen and took down my information and let me know that management would be in contact with me for a follow up. I'm comforted to know that this business does hire good people and that the harasser was probably a bad egg.

Interesting fact! "Denato" knew exactly who I was talking about before I gave him a description or showed a picture of the harasser. In fact, "Denato" described who he thought I was talking about to me first and I confirmed it. That makes me wonder if Mr. Harasser has a history...

UPDATE: It's been over a week. I never heard back from them. I'm really disappointed and I worry that they just tossed my info in the paper when I left the store. Maybe I will try a follow-up again? I don't know if I have the heart for more disappointment. They promised I'd be contacted in a few days.


Submitted by anonymous 08/19/2010

Location: Forsyth Park

iHollaBack Anticipation!

ihollaback.org is getting closer to launch! And articles are popping up everywhere in anticipation! Here are a few:

NY Daily News

Tech President

The Frisky

Enjoy!
Word of mouth is that the NYC launch party was a blast!

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HollaBack in London!

Welcome HollaBack LDN to the cause!

HollaBack LDN lets women Holla Back at street harassers! London is not a playground for pervy dudes to call out at us when we're going about our daily business! So stop walkin' on and ignoring it and Holla Back: Send us pics of street harassers and tell us your story...

I couldn't have said it better myself. Good luck, HollaBack LDN!

Forsyth Harassers

It was 5:35 PM today and my sister and I were walking through the crowded Forsyth Park after grocery shopping. We were minding our business, just chatting with each other, when seemingly out of nowhere, I hear kissing sounds. I glance over my shoulder and it's the two older men in the photo. They keep making kissing sounds and one of them mumbles something. I didn't hear it, but it would be no surprise to me if it were something foul and offensive. They keep making the sounds, so I turn and give them the finger. When they saw, they just smiled creepy shit-eating grins, with no respect for me or my sister (or likely any other woman), just happy that they got attention.

I've been told to ignore this behavior, but I know better and I know that ignoring does nothing, because this continually happens. Then I remembered this site!

I told my sister to keep going while I grabbed my cellphone and walked back. The park was crowded, so I wasn't afraid. I started snapping pictures of the douches. Both of them became uncomfortable when I started taking pictures. Blue shirt turned completely around and the man in the black hoodie kept looking away. That made me feel a lot better and made me feel like I taken the power they felt away from them. Watch out for these disrespectful men, Savannah.

Submitted by anonymous 02/21/2010

Location: Forsyth Park

Broughton St. Harasser

On Thursday night, two friends and I were sitting outside of Starbucks on the corner of Broughton and Bull. A guy came up and asked us if we would buy him some coffee. He looked normal enough, but none of us had any money to buy him some. He started spouting off about how he was an incarnation of Shivah, and that he would one day reign down upon us. We thought at first that he was drunk and just messing with us, but it got serious pretty quickly. He kept going in and out of different accents. The whole thing was very strange. He started calling my friend a demon, and when my girl friend went inside to use the restroom, he kept asking if she was calling the police. He said he was looking for a sacrifice and that he would be in jail by the end of the night. I think he picked up on the fact that two of us were gay, and so he kept bringing up the fact that he wasn't gay and we were all going to pay. We got pretty scared and started walking away, but he followed us. Even when we would cross streets and turn around, he would just follow. Since my car was parked in a really dark and sketchy area, we decided to just go back in Starbucks. He waited outside, watching through the windows. Eventually we just asked an employee if she would take us out the back and we made a quick dash to the car.

I managed to snap this picture while he was doing one of his weird silent chants. Everyone avoid this guy!

Submitted by Jon 01/08/2010

Location: Starbucks on Broughton

Bull St. Harasser

I'm a SCAD student who would just like to attend school in peace. This past July, I was taking summer classes at Arnold Hall. Around 1:30 PM, I was walking back from class and heading north along Bull St. towards Forsyth. I was wearing sunglasses and listening to music through my headphones. Clearly, I was trying to peacefully tune out the world and I didn't want to be bothered.

On either the corner of Anderson or Henry St., just after I had crossed, this middle-aged man approaches me and says what sounds like, "I feel like fuckin'!" I really hoped I had heard him wrong, so I pulled a headphone out and said, "Excuse me?" He repeated it... and kept repeating "I feel like fuckin'! I feel like fuckin'!" I told him, "Well, I feel like kicking you in the balls!" and walked off. He kept saying it so I flipped him off, but he just laughed.

I wish I had known about this site because I would have taken a picture!

Submitted by anonymous on 12/10/2009

Location: Bull St. corner of Anderson or Henry

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