Joliet activists hold rally over discrimination claim against store

Activists and a Will County Board member held a rally outside a Joliet convenience store in response to a woman’s allegation that a store employee discriminated against a customer.

Nine people attended the rally during a frigid Saturday morning in the parking lot of Sam Food Mart, 212 Richards St.

Among the attendees were Will County Board member Sherry Williams, three members of the Royal Black Panther Party and Doug Kasper, leader of the Nonviolent Cities Project.

Also in attendance was Adrienne Cooper Williams, a Black woman who alleged she saw a store employee speak in a discriminatory manner toward another Black woman at the store.

In a speech at the rally, Williams claimed on Dec. 25 she was in line at Sam Food Mart when she saw the woman get into a dispute with the store employee over her being “doubled taxed” on her purchases.

“She said, ‘But sir, you can’t double tax me.’ And he said, ‘No, all you people want to do is come here and steal from me,’” Williams said.

After hearing that, Williams said she returned the items she was initially planning on purchasing and then left the store.

Trista Graves Brown, founder of the community organization SpeakUp, spearheaded the rally and said she thought the comment that Williams claimed she heard from the store employee was “pretty prejudiced.”

“We’re rallying ourselves around Sam Food Mart to have an open dialogue about what happened. What does, ‘You people,’ mean?” Brown said.

Brown said the rally was not intended as a protest but as an “open dialogue” with the store.

Sherry Williams, who also is a member of SpeakUp, said she was there because she heard “there might have been some discrimination going on over here and we just came to check it out.”

Williams said they were making “people aware of what’s going on, and hopefully we can get something resolved.”

The Herald-News visited the store after the rally Saturday and was provided a phone number for the owner.

In a phone interview, Sam Mohmad, who identified himself as the owner of Sam Food Mart, disputed Adrienne Cooper Williams' version of events, including her claim that a store employee said, “All you people want to do is come here and steal from me.”

“No, that’s not true,” Mohmad said.

He said a customer was insisting one of the items she was trying to buy cost $1 when it was actually $1.89. He said the store employee was trying to explain to her that it was not $1.

Mohmad said the store has been in the community for a long time and has never been discriminatory toward anyone. He said the store supports the neighborhood and the community.

“I build my relationship with the community, not with somebody from the outside,” he said.

Cleveland Barrett, a commander with the Royal Black Panther Party, said his group was in Joliet to show how Black men can engage in conflict resolution without violence.

But they also wanted to work toward making Joliet “vibrant and prosperous again.”

“We’re trying to breathe life back into the community,” Barrett said.