Inside Columbus International Pizza. The two men and one woman behind the counter were Mexican, but the owner had to be Italian because I saw a photo of Padre Pio on the wall. All the customers but me were black. Ten minutes after this photo, several black teenaged girls ran in and sat down at a couple of booths, to be followed by a Korean shopkeeper about 30 seconds later. They had apparently shoplifted from her store because she started to tussle with them as they ran out. Yelling, "Call 911! Call 911!" she managed to yank a small plastic bag from one girl, then ran after the rest down the street.
A customer came in and asked, "Yo, what happened?"
The lady behind the counter answered, "No big deal. Nobody shot nobody."
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3 comments:
If those kids were white( and middle class) I guarantee you that shop keeper would be facing assault charges .
That's one of the mysteries of the ghetto I shall never understand . Why would a Korean want to own a shop in a poor crime riddled area ?
Hi Ksou,
Since no punches were thrown, maybe tussle is too strong a word, but there was a struggle at the door as they tried to get out and she tried to detain them.
Of course you already know that Korean shopkeepers do business in the ghetto because they can't afford the overhead elsewhere, but this incident was in downtown Trenton, in any case.
In most ghettos, you also find Chinese takeouts. In Detroit, however, there are very few Chinese restaurants, but even bus drivers fear for their lives there.
Hi Linh
The part of me that has studied economics and bussiness understands why Koreans own as many shops in low income areas as they do . But the part of me that looks at how outright depressing a ghetto can be , is still confused . The times i lived in such areas , i had one goal, to leave .
Then again , id make a very poor capitalist . Why worry about personal safety when you can open a shop and mark up prices far higher then you could elsewhere.
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