This week, I was tipped by a reader that there was some Ku Klux Klan activity being exacted on black business owners in a Midwestern town. As I traveled across the Midwest between book signings, I went to the town, to the businesses, and could hardly believe what I witnessed.
The crimes and harassment were not only going unreported, but unpunished.
We don’t always know whether anecdotal accounts are actually rooted in racism, until we see patterns. That becomes especially true when you witness it with your own eyes.
I spent a day in a town where most of the residents are white, and they are so angry at what they are told is oppression, they are intentionally destroying their own town. Prominent leaders of the KKK were instigating whites to riot not just locally, but all over the country. News media would only report the black-on-white crime, but the white-on-black crime was swept beneath the rug.
I spent more time going from black business to black business. They told me how young, white males are preying on their customers day after day. One black business owner said white kids as young as 10 years old were loitering and yelling at his customers as they walked in his restaurant. The white youth yelled, “Go back to where you came from!” and “Leave, or we will kill all of you!”
There is just one thing you should note about the preceding paragraphs: Every time you read “black,” it should say “Bosnian.” Every time this column says “white,” it should read “black.” And the KKK is obviously the New Black Panthers and its race-baiting cronies, Sharpton and Jackson.
The troubles for this business owner, Almir, who is actually Bosnian, only escalated over the last few months of civil unrest. The black harassers got more emboldened as law enforcement ignored the threats on the Bosnian businesses, and they started keying the cars of customers patronizing his restaurant. Then, black youth would burst into his restaurant screaming and growling just to scare his customers.
The day I was there, Almir’s carefully appointed restaurant sat empty except for one couple, who sat in the entry corner of the restaurant. The woman, Sabina, looked tired and hardened. The man, Elvis, looked angry. The business owner told me that they had been attacked this week at knife point in Almir’s parking lot. They were told that they were attacked because they were Bosnian, and because they were patronizing a Bosnian-owned restaurant. The police said they would do more patrols, but there wasn’t a lot they could do.
The next day, a Bosnian man was killed with hammers as black teens ran away from the scene reportedly shouting, “Die, white man!” and other slurs.
The mayor of the city said none of it was racially motivated. Other murders of Bosnians in the neighborhood preceded and followed the knife incident that involved Elvis and Sabina in this gentrified area carefully built out of blighted ruins by the Bosnian residents who settled here just a decade or two ago.
The racists made a video claiming blacks have a birthright to neighborhoods like Almir’s and that Bosnians are invaders and, thus, fair game for extermination. The media didn’t gave it a moment’s play. The FBI isn’t investigating. Most people on the street will never know the heartache of those in the Bosnian neighborhoods who just want to be left alone so they can run their businesses. They have nowhere to turn. They have almost lost all hope in the American dream.
Almir said he is going nowhere. He said he won’t be driven from his home or business that he built. He worked hard to build his restaurant and his community. He doesn’t know what he is going to do about his empty restaurant, or his fear-filled community, but he looks fiercely determined.
Sabina’s eyes tell a different story. As a mother of three, she fears for her children who have to go to school each day with indoctrinated youth who threaten them every day. My guess is that Sabina will flee in an effort to protect her children from the violence, even if it breaks her family apart. She looked tired after all she has endured. Elvis, her husband, just looked angry. Very angry. He never cracked a smile.
As I interviewed the three, we all glanced nervously outside the restaurant over and over, fearful of another attack, or a gunshot through the sturdy little windows carefully crafted to make the restaurant look particularly cozy and attractive. I came there knowing only of one murder that had taken place in the same block. I had no idea the numerous unreported crimes happening over and over to the people in this community, simply based upon the fact that they are Bosnian.
When I left, still the restaurant sat empty, and the parking lot looked particularly vacant on this dark, rainy night. Traffic bustled by, busy with Christmas shoppers who were hungry after a long day of shopping and decorating. But none would stop at Almir’s restaurant. Bosnian-owned businesses are known targets, and no one wants to risk their lives to have dinner.
Almir caters, too. Hopefully some nice people will help keep his business open through these horrible times by using him as caterer.
I knew after meeting Almir, Elvis, and Sabina that I wanted to call for a BUYcott of all Bosnian owned businesses. This isn’t because I don’t like black people (though I will certainly be accused of that again). I just don’t like the tactics of the New Black Panthers and the race-baiters who opportunistically use those who are easily used to hurt innocent people.
I conducted the first BUYcott of Whole Foods when unions boycotted them for opposing Obamacare. My BUYcotts were very successful, but I have been very selective about asking Americans to talk with their pocketbooks because I believe I should only ask when a true injustice is being overlooked by media and law enforcement.
We BUYcotted Arizona when people boycotted it for wanting to protect the rule of law there and guard its borders.
So today I call for a BUYcott of Bosnian-owned businesses, and I want to start with Almir’s restaurant.
Watch for my upcoming article at WND detailing what really happened to Elvis, Sabina, and Almir, along with other Bosnian-owned businesses.
Please help in whatever way you can and show the racists like Sharpton and Jackson that their KKK-style tactics of threats, assaults, rioting and murder will not be tolerated, and they will not intimidate families and businesses owners to abandon what they worked so hard to build.
Bosna Gold Restaurant
Owner: Almir Nesimovic
4601 Gravois Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63116
(314)351-2058
