Black business owner left picking up pieces for second time after city unrest

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte black business owner has been left to pick up the pieces for the second time in four years.

James Mack, who owns Epic Times in the Epicentre, suffered damage to his jewelry business during protests in 2016, and again this week, when looters rummaged through his Charlotte store.

Mack said he woke up to an alert on his phone, then watched the horrific scene play out live from surveillance cameras.

"I'm just literally trying to get out of bed and get down here while watching my phone and people coming in smashing stuff up, grabbing stuff and everything," he said.

The protests, which have been starting out as peaceful and organized before deteriorating into violence, are over the death of George Floyd. Floyd died while in Minneapolis police custody.

Mack’s heartbreak, complicated by frustration, as a black man in support of the protests, but also a black business-owner who built his store from the ground up.

“If we close, that’s another beacon of hope for African-Americans that’s been washed away,” he explained.

Mack said he even posted a sign in the door that read “black-owned business” upon news there might be unrest.

Student activist Righteous Keitt had been posting similar signs throughout Charlotte at other black-owned businesses when he learned about looting at Mack’s store. He offered to help immediately, even kickstarting an online fundraising campaign.

Keitt explained, posting signs was one way he chose to get involved, which was also an effort to show solidarity with protests against racial injustice.

“Since I was nine, I’ve seen viral videos of African-Americans being shot, posted on social media, shared, shared, shared, and then we have nothing that progresses after that,” Keitt said. “For over a century, we have businesses torn down, especially black businesses, torn down and burned down.”

Mack had high praise for Keitt’s activism.

“We need that,” he said. “We need young brothers doing positive things, making positive movements, bringing positive change.”

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