Being followed and scrutinized in a retail environment is almost cliché when you are a person of color. But such an act becomes in some ways even more insidious when the person tracking you is another person of color. This was the case for an African-American woman kicked and choked at a beauty supply store in Charlotte, NC by an Asian male store owner. This shocking assault seems to be business as usual in regards to the mistreatment of black women.
According to WNCN.com the owner of Missha Beauty, Sung Ho Lim, got into a physical altercation with a black woman after he suspected her of stealing, of all things eye lashes. The beauty of the ugliness. The yet unidentified woman can be heard on the video saying, “Check my bag. I don’t have anything.” An exchange between Lim and the woman results in what can only be described as a WWE, “Let’s get ready to rumble,” level of assault and invasion of personal space. Lim is seen kicking and then wrestling a black woman to the ground like a dude and then ending his wannabe Rush Hour, martial arts performance, in an uncompromising choke hold that resulted in the black woman gasping for air as well as her dignity.
Lim says this incident was not racially motivated but we know that is total BS. I live in Charlotte and grew up in the south and the store owners actions are a residual effect of systemic racism. We forget that in this country the whole concept of “white” was based on the need for diverse immigrants to set aside their individual lineage and take on the collective mantle of becoming “white” in order to rule over the revenue generating, agrarian south.
This caste system was designed based on the polarization of black and white folks; with the understanding that the closer you were to white- the better your situation would be. What we sometimes forget is that some folks from other cultures have adapted similar attitudes and pre-conceived notions of black folks as being inferior. So, it is no wonder Mr. Lim felt emboldened to scrutinize and assault his black female patron.
Why? Because the sad ugly truth is that we have supported an ongoing false narrative of the black woman as hard, caustic and aggressive.
Black women are under constant attack; her beauty, her character, her femininity and her womanhood. Black women are the victims of a very successful cultural chop- shop where their attributes are stripped, copied and celebrated on other models. The same authentic: curves, behinds, melanin, lips and other features that in their original form render black women less than when viewed through a mainstream lens are astonishingly given goddess like status when they are featured on other women. It is a sometimes schizophrenic state of mind one must negotiate, to find and maintain a true sense of beauty and worth.
A black woman’s worth is constantly being tested by a non-stop barrage of images and messages communicated through the media. Series like RHOA, Love and Hip Hop, Basketball Wives and the list continues, show black women constantly at odds with the world and themselves.
The narrative becomes even more complex with the all too common practice of the best way to become an instant Internet star is to don a wig and or “black girl” persona. Characteristics that are demonized on black women are magically transformed and celebrated when bestowed upon other women. But they are only celebrated once filtered through a prism of cultural appropriation. The “cash me outside” girl becomes an internet sensation for playing a character that any other ‘black” girl from round the block would be vilified for similar behavior. And how many dudes put on wigs and act like “black women” for Likes and followers? An act which is cute for a laugh but reduces black women to fictional characters, mocks their beauty, trivializes their struggle and parodies their femininity.
I am not in any way excusing the shop owner for his despicable treatment of the black woman in his store. And I even applaud the predictable and reactionary protest from the NAACP, church leaders and community who justifiably want to hold the store owner accountable for his actions. But tomorrow there will be another crisis and wig wearing internet star, so if we do not address our collective culpability in the assault against black women then we will find yet another sister being physically and culturally choked out.