Yahoo News Why This Black Shop Owner Is Encouraging Protests
Shannon Maldonado is the founder of Yowie, a Philadelphia-based shop selling items by independent makers and artists.
By now we have all seen the video (or should I say videos). As I watched officers carry the listless body of George Floyd out of frame, something completely broke in me. I sat in my living room, confronted with the raw emotions of my own history with racism. The first incident occurred when I was 11 years old. I was sitting in a Philadelphia park a few blocks from my home with a couple of my white friends and I was asked to leave for being black. Immediately a fear was instilled in me. A fear that hums quietly under the surface of my everyday. Then there were the countless other incidents; from being overlooked for career opportunities, being called racial slurs while working in corporate fashion, having my hair touched by my white colleagues, or being told I "don't talk black" by executives. There are too many incidents to recall, because when you're black these encounters become something you begin to expect.
When I opened my storefront in 2016 in Philadelphia, I had lots of moments of fear. There was the usual fear of being a budding entrepreneur, but mainly there was the fear of being different. The storefronts on my street are mostly owned by non-black people. Yowie is not a typical store for Philadelphia. Our space is bright with white floors that mimic a gallery and we arrange and merchandise things in a way that doesn't always "make sense" in a city that is traditionally straight-forward and blue collar. I often get challenged with questions like "What is this place?" by people who I think mean well but always come off as annoyed by our presence. On the bad days it almost breaks me to constantly be made to feel like we don't belong there, while on better days I'm up for the challenge with my feet proudly cemented to the floor.
On Sunday May 31st, I found myself unable to stop crying. The dam of raw emotions I had been holding back for decades had broken. There was nothing left to stop it. I felt immense, overwhelming sadness over the loss of these many lives, brought to the surface by the loss of George Floyd. I thought of my little brother, who has been harassed by police since he was in high school, and the times he's been arrested and survived. I thought of the daily microagressions I receive; the times people have questioned why something was given to me, or why I was someplace. I faced things I had buried so deep that I even struggled to remember all of the details.
I understand other businesses nailing plywood sheets to their storefronts, but I knew that did not feel right for my shop. I decided to compose my thoughts and print them as a large poster to display in our windows.
I didn't want to run or hide anymore. I wanted to claim my space as a black business owner. Yowie is not the largest storefront on the block, but it faces a very busy grocery store and sits near a sunny corner that most of our neighbors and many other shop owners walk past. I wanted them to know how WE feel. How tired WE are. And how little more WE can take. The window isn't about me, it's about the Breonnas, the Ahmads, the Tonys, the Georges and the black people that spend so much of their life just fighting to exist. As I stood in my empty storefront (we've been closed since 3/13 due to COVID-19) applying the small pieces of tape to the edges of the poster I felt the water rising again. My eyes watered, but they were bubbling with a different feeling: pride. Yowie is a black owned business and we support the protestors. I wanted passersby and our audience to know where we stand and I thought that the sign could act as an invisible handshake. I want people walking by the store to take the time to read the poster and to hear what I'm saying, which I hope expresses what so many in the black community are feeling. These conversations need to extend outside of our circles. This moment is bigger than one person. We are fighting for our lives.
These are the words in our window:
WE ARE TIRED.
TIRED OF WAITING FOR A CHANGE TO HAPPEN WITHIN OUR LIFETIME. TIRED OF THE EXCUSES AND JUSTIFICATIONS FOR THE MANY MURDERS OF BLACK PEOPLE. TIRED OF THE SHARING OF PAINFUL VIDEOS OF SAID MURDERS AND HAVING TO EXPLAIN THAT RACISM IS YES, IN FACT VERY REAL BUT ALSO INSIDIOUS, RAMPANT AND SYSTEMATIC. TIRED OF EDUCATING AND TRYING TO MAKE OTHERS FEEL COMFORTABLE WHEN WE ARE SO RARELY AFFORDED THE LUXURY OURSELVES.
WE CAN’T BREATHE.
WE ALSO CAN’T SIT IN OUR LIVING ROOMS, WE CAN’T GO FOR A RUN, WE CAN’T WATCH BIRDS IN A PUBLIC PARK OR DO THINGS THAT OTHERS TAKE FOR GRANTED EVERYDAY. OUR FREEDOM IS TESTED SO OFTEN THAT WE ABSORB AND PUSH THESE EXPERIENCES SO DEEP JUST SO THAT WE CAN GET THROUGH OUR DAYS WITHOUT BREAKING DOWN.
WE CAN’T HEAR IT ANYMORE.
Yowie is a proud black owned business and we stand in support of the protesters fighting to end police brutality. We stand with the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and the countless others dealing with the loss and pain of these senseless murders.
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