Editorial by George Anderson
The La Lupita Mexican store in the central Tennessee town of Marysville may have had the initials "WP", standing for white power, scrawled in graffiti on it this weekend in an apparent attack by racial terrorists, but there was nothing powerful in this mindless and cowardly act.
The terrorists who carried out the attack smashed windows and destroyed merchandise in the store and broke into an outdoor freezer containing meat and produce. The store's co-owner, Yurisan Cornejo, said nothing was stolen. The attackers were apparently intent on sending a message to Hispanics living in the area.
"It's 2005. You'd think people would know it's not like years before. We were kind of upset but we know that we could manage through it," said Ms. Cornejo. "They did hurt our feelings but we just have to go through it."
A report by WATE television out of Knoxville said incidents involving racism seem to be on the rise in Maryville with much of it targeted to Hispanics living in the area. This weekend's attack was the second on La Lupita over the past several months.
Ms. Cornejo told Knoxville's WBIR television that they would just pick up the pieces and start again. "We know there's more of a good community than a bad community. It may hurt us today, but tomorrow, we'll be O.K.," she said.
Moderator's Comment: Are incidents of terrorism and intimidation directed at retailers owned by minorities or serving minority populations on the rise in the U.S.? What is your reaction to this story?
While the La Lupita story goes outside the "normal" scope of coverage on RetailWire, we have to ask that those who don't see its "fit" to give us leeway this time. This was too important to just remain a local story.
What happened in Tennessee this weekend was a terrorist act, plain and simple. As such it deserves the same attention as terrorist attacks carried on outside the U.S.
For those who may wonder about our use of the word terrorism to describe the attack on La Lupita, we offer this definition of the word from the GlobalSecurity.org Web site: "The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence against people or property to coerce or intimidate governments or societies, often to achieve political, religious, or ideological objectives." - George Anderson - Moderator