Empire Liquor Mart By Gabriel Kahane: Poem Analysis

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“Empire Liquor Mart” “Empire Liquor Mart (9127 S. Figueroa St.)” by Gabriel Kahane is a song about how black people have experienced oppression throughout history. The song tells the story of a young girl name Latasha, who was shot and killed in a liquor store in Los Angeles, while trying to purchase some orange juice. The owner accused Latasha of stealing the orange juice even though she had the money to pay for it. After being accused, Latasha and the clerk who was Korean got into altercation where the clerk grab Latasha and Latasha punched the clerk out of anger. As Latasha was trying to leave the store, the clerk shot her in the back of her head (Kahane). The main reason for this incident was simply caused by racial stereotype. …show more content…
There was no reliable eyewitness or a documentary record of the encounter between Darren Wilson and Michael Brown however there are images of the confrontations between demonstrators and police beginning on the day of Mr. Brown’s death. Brown was accused of stealing candies and cigars by the shopkeeper, as a result Brown got into a dispute with the clerk. While the clerk was so busy arguing with Brown, someone else was already exiting the store. The clerk stereotyped Brown and only focused on him because he was black, while there was another person who just walked out of the store. As Brown and his friend was walking, Wilson stopped them because they fitted the description of a robbery that happened at that time. Wilson and Brown got into an altercation, nobody really knows what happened during the altercation, but as a result, Wilson fatally killed Brown with a total of twelves bullets. Brown was left lying dead on the street for hours with a pool of his blood. Word about the shooting spreaded like a wildfire throughout Ferguson, demonstrators gathered on West Florrissant Avenue. Demonstrators protested nightly so the police force was propelled, there were fifty-four officers of whom fifty was white. St. Louis suburb looked like an outpost of Baghdad, with officers outfitted in military style with rifles, helmets, and combat boots

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