JANESVILLE
Local artisan Paquita Purnell was packing up a minivan Tuesday with the last of her wares after she pulled out of her vendor space at Best of Janesville Vintage Mall.
The incident happened Saturday during the busy Vintage Shop Hop. It has drawn fire on social media from tenants and customers who say mall owner James Flister took too few steps to publicly apologize for the vendorâs displays, which customers and vendors say are racist.
Tenants also claim Flister threatened to evict at least one of his mall tenants after the person spoke out against the displays.
On Saturday, vendors at the Best of Beloit Vintage Mall in South Beloit said they spotted a booth that displayed two paper fans depicting caricatures of Black people with distorted facial features and unrealistically dark skin.
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