It’s barely two weeks after the videotaped beating of Rodney King. Latasha Harlins, 15, stops inside a convenience store with money in her hand. She tries to buy a bottle of orange juice as she is profiled by the store’s Korean-American owner, Soon Ja Du, who is watching the teen reflected in mirrors mounted around the store. Latasha put the orange juice in her backpack, not to steal it, but to carry it up to the counter.
As the teen reaches the counter, Du accuses her of stealing the juice before she could give her the money. Security footage shows the grown woman and teenager fighting. Latasha tries to leave after getting the best of the grocer. Du shoots her in the back of the head and she dies on the floor.
A Black child was killed over a bottle of orange juice that cost $1.79. Read that sentence again.
Latasha’s killer was convicted of voluntary manslaughter but she never spent a day in prison. In the deep, ugly language of American racial permission, the message was clear. A merchant’s suspicion could outweigh a Black child’s life and it instructed everybody watching that if they ever feared a Black youth, the law might find room for their sympathy.
And now, here we go again.
Thirty-five years later, 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton’s killing in Columbia, South Carolina, feels so hauntingly familiar. He too was profiled upon entering the store, and was suspected of stealing water by placing bottles inside his backpack. The store owner Chikei “Rick” Chow chased the boy 130 yards before shooting him dead in the street. A jury found Chow not guilty of murder on June 1, and sparked outrage across Black communities.
Source: Black People Have Been Boycotting The Same Insult For 40 Years
Recent Comments