On November 15, Hyun Chan Cha, a sixty-nine-year-old Korean, was murdered inside the Beauty Supply store she owned in East Point, a 77% Black suburb of Atlanta. Surveillance video captured a Black assailant. Nathan Huff, 43, has been arrested.
There is a long history of animosity against Korean-owned Beauty Supply Stores within the Black community. These stores are often targets of violence and theft. Some in the Black community will even justify violence against Korean owned shops in general and Beauty Supply stores in particular.
In 1991, Black superstar rapper and actor Ice Cube published a song denouncing Korean shopkeepers in the Black community. He threatened to burn down their stores. Afterward, Koreans were heavily targeted during the 1992 Black race riots in Los Angeles. As many as 45% of all businesses looted or burned were Korean-owned. One study showed that 730 Koreans were treated for PTSD in relation to the riots. Black violence against Korean shop owners in Los Angeles was a subject of the 1993 movie Menace II Society.
During the Baltimore BLM riots of 2015, Black militants stood in front of Black-owned businesses and directed looters to Asian-owned shops. (See Below)
In Atlanta, there is a history of Korean Beauty Supply shops being targeted for robbery. In 2010, Atlanta’s Black newspaper, the Atlanta Post, wrote about the phenomenon of Korean-owned Beauty Supply Stores in Black neighborhoods. They talked about how it angers some Blacks and sparks boycotts.
Animosity against Korean-owned Beauty Supply Stores within the Black community:
New York Times from 2020
New York The City from 2020
MPRNews from 2017
Patch from 2011
