“In video captured by a Daily Caller reporter, Louisville business owner Fadi Faouri–who immigrated to America as a teen without knowing the language and with only ‘$100 in his pocket’–is leaning against his store window with gun in-hand when activists swarm him and ask for his verbal support of Black Lives Matter and agreement that ‘Breonna Taylor matters.’ The businessman refuses to promote the radical activist group and emphasizes that he ‘doesn’t see color,’ but looks as people as ‘human beings.’ Mr. Faouri told the New York Post that he’s been protecting his storefront for months and was trying to move his location. The place he was leasing, however, was burned down by rioters last week, just as he was finishing up the renovations. ‘Every night we have a new store that got looted. They break in, they take whatever and go. They walk away.’ ‘They cannot force me to say something I don’t want to say,’ he said. ‘They try to force me to do stuff that I don’t want to do, and I will not do.’ ‘If I made it in this country with no language whatsoever when I came in, and $100 in my pocket, nobody has any right to say they can’t make it in this country,’ the businessman said, adding, ‘There’s a different way and better ways to handle this. What they’re doing, they’re doing it wrong.’ According to a report from the Courier-Journal, dozens of businesses in NuLu, a small commercial district in downtown Louisville, have been hit with race-based demands from activists. As laid out by the outlet, the activists’ list of demands include the following: Employ more black people; purchase more inventory from black retailers; undergo diversity training. Activist Phelix Crittenden outlined three ‘rankings’ local businesses can score: ‘A’ for ‘Ally,’ ‘C’ for ‘Complicit,’ and ‘F’ for ‘Failed.’ While some business owners have already signed ‘contracts’ to comply with the demands and acknowledge alleged gentrification of the area, some business owners are standing firm. Restaurateur and Cuban immigrant Fernando Martinez, for example, slammed the activists for their ‘mafia tactics.’ ‘There comes a time in life that you have to make a stand and you have to really prove your convictions and what you believe in,’ Martinez said in a Facebook post. ‘All good people need to denounce this. How can you justified (sic) injustice with more injustice?’ ‘If you and I can sit down as human beings that we are without screaming at each other, without calling each other names, without offending each other, we can come to an understanding,’ Martinez told a protester. ‘How is destroying our business going to bring any justice?’”
“Immigrant Business Owner Battles BLM Activists,” The Daily Wire, Sep. 30, 2020