The Final Call

Demonstrators call for boycott of Missha Beauty Supply

By Final Call News | Last updated: Sep 6, 2017 - 5:27:39 PM

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During a Saturday protest, Black Lives Matter-Women of Faith Co- Founder Ms. LaShawn Littrice (holding microphone) encouraged people not to shop at Missha’s due to an incident that occurred earlier this year at the retailer’s store in Charlotte. Ms. Lattrice is standing next to an enlarged image of the March incident where an employee of Missha’s has a young, Black woman in a headlock. The incident was captured on video.

CHICAGO—On a recent Saturday afternoon community activists and residents gathered outside Missha Beauty Supply on East 47th Street located in the city’s Bronzeville neighborhood situated on the South Side. They continued calls for an ongoing boycott of the retail chain for an incident involving one of their employees and a young, Black woman earlier this year at the retailers Charlotte, N.C. store (See Final Call Vol. 36 No. 25).

A patron at Missha beauty supply captured cell phone video of a violent exchange involving store supervisor, an Asian man, and Black woman allegedly accused of shoplifting.

The video shows the customer being confronted by the man and another store employee, an Asian woman. After a verbal exchange, she hands store management a bag telling them to check it. The store supervisor and employee start shoving the customer to keep her from exiting the store at which time  things quickly escalate with the male supervisor kicking the woman; both he and the employee shoving her to the ground.

He proceeds to violently choke the woman as she pleads for him to stop. Once posted on social media, the video went viral, sparking outrage and protests calling for an economic boycott of the store which has been going on since the incident.

Demonstrators in Chicago stood in solidarity with others nationwide in protest of what transpired in Charlotte. The owner of the Chicago store also owns the Charlotte store.

Demonstrators marched on 47th and King Drive in heart of Chicago’s Bronzeville community asking people to join their boycott of Missha’s store. Photos: Owen M. Lawson, III

Student Minister Jeffrey Muhammad of the Nation of Islam and Chicago’s Justice or Else Local Organizing Committee addresses demonstrators.