It all started with screaming. That is what drew Andy Lizarraga away from her usual errands. At first, she paid no mind to it – expecting a trivial fight but when she spotted the crying girl, Andy knew she had to act.
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All the commotion was caused by a crying young girl and an angry old woman who kept berating the poor child. Andy could see that the little girl was overwhelmed and despite so many witnesses, the older woman took things a step further…
A Little Snack Run
The Target store at Rowland Heights was a local favorite and with so much foot traffic, business savvy kids from around the neighborhood would set up small stands to sell candy for school trips and such.
So, when 8-year-old Jordan with her brother, decided to sell some chocolate after school, they didn’t think twice. Most people were impressed that Jordan at such a young age had such an enterprising mind. Andy Lizarraga herself told her “What an enterprising kid!”, that is until they ran into the old lady.
Going Downhill
Andy didn’t see how it all started and later, even poor Jordan had no idea why everything went wrong. All she remembered was that one minute she was politely selling chocolate and the next, the old lady was berating her.
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“Where is your license?” she screamed at the young girl. Her manner of speaking was so jarring and out of place for Jordan that she was at a loss for words. Suddenly, it seemed like she was all alone and strangers were all staring at her!
Threatening The Young Girl
“Have you asked permission to be here?” continued the woman. Jordan was desperately looking for her older brother but he was nowhere to be seen. With tears quickly filling her eyes, she finally managed to say something.
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“I’m just selling candy. I’m trying to make some money,” the girl timidly responded. Later, the public questioned why it was only Jordan the “concerned citizen” was questioning and not any of the white kids, who were also spotted selling chocolate at the location.
Escalating Quickly!
So rude and disrespectful was the old woman that she started threatening the terrified young child. “Well, if you don’t have a permit, you’re going to go to jail. The sheriff’s on his way.”
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The helpless girl looked around, all the commotion had caused a crowd to form and the girl was trapped inside alone. Then finally, someone came to the rescue of the little girl. “What’s going?” a shopper asked.
Helpful Hand
Jay Lopez has shopped at Target regularly and had seen kids sell candy without ever seeing a “permit”, so he was instantly confused as to why this girl was being questioned and brought to tears over it.
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He asked the child, “Are you selling this candy?” The youngster was frozen in fear. “I’m… just selling candy,” she said before bursting into tears. He then turned to the woman, furious and demanding an explanation for her outburst.
He Stood Up For The Child
“She doesn’t have a permit, and she doesn’t have permission from the store to be selling food on their premises,” she told him. “But don’t worry,” she went on, “I’ve called the police.”
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The old woman had expected Jay to take her side but he firmly told her “Why don’t you mind your own business,”’. He added, “I can’t believe you’ve got her in tears over this!” Finally, Jordan had someone on her side.
The Stranger Had Good Intentions
The woman was shocked. She had thought she was being a good Samaritan by catching this poor child but in fact, it turns out was only targeting Jordan because she was African American!
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It was Jay who was the real hero, who tried to protect Jordan from the old white women’s harsh tone and not just that, to really shame the woman and her actions. He took things a step further and all the old woman could do was watch!
A Step Further
“How much are you selling these for?” he gently asked the crying girl. Jordan was shocked by his kindness, she gently said” “A dollar each, sir.” Jay, while making eye contact with the old woman pulled out his wallet and told her “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
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The old woman’s temper turned from sour to black. She couldn’t believe Jay was aiding Jorden in her ‘illegal” sales and glowered at the pair. Though, a quick twist came when Jay realized he had no cash on him!
A Little Embarrassed
The old lady started smirking at Jay and the little girl, happy to see him fumbling around for cash. That is when the little girl tugged at Jay’s hand and asked him if she was really going to go to jail?
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This broke Jay, he was the one who was furious now. How could any adult put a child through such mental torture? Without even waiting for a second, he reassured Jordan ” Of course not” and stormed off.
He Came Back
The whole crowd, including Jordan, was confused. Where did Lopez go? And just as everyone was dispersing believing that the old lady had won this discriminatory battle, jay showed up.
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“I’m buying all of it!” He announced with a handful of cash. “How much for all of it?” There was a murmur of appreciation and approval from the crowd and now it was Lopez who was smiling.
Her Biggest Sale
The little girl couldn’t believe it. She had never sold more than a few chocolates and fumbled around to give Lopez a number. “80 dollars,” she said quietly, and just like that, Lopez handed her the cash and took the chocolates.
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And not just that, he started distributing the chocolates to the crowd but he made sure to not hand one to the old lady. The tables were reversed and now it was the old lady, who was being singled out and not the little girl.
Going Viral
Andy was part of the crowd and recorded all of it on her phone. She had also gotten the free chocolate from Jay and as soon as she got home, she made sure to upload the video on Facebook.
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Instantly, the video went viral. With thousands of comments pouring in asking about Jordan and if she was okay. Of course, Andy had no details about the girl but within a day her post had 70,000 shares and over five million views.
Parents
It was only when Jordan’s mother, reached out to Andy to request her to take down the video. The girl’s parents didn’t want the whole world to see their daughter be humiliated like that and also wanted to protect her privacy.
Andy respected the parent’s wishes and took down the video. While the video isn’t available to view anymore, it still left a huge impact on the community. Not only locally but also online. It started a discussion about racial prejudice and more.
Not Uncommon
We would love to say that this is one of the few cases of such a thing happening to a child but sadly, it is all too common. Another story of a young girl, also eight years old getting targeted by an older female is making waves across the internet.
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Alison Ettel went viral for all the wrong reasons. She too wanted to report an 8-year-old African American girl because the child was selling water without a “permit”. This is her infamous story.
Pemit Patty
Dubbed as “Permit Patty”, Ettel became the face of White Americans harassing people of color over trivial matters and threatening to call the police on them. All of it started thanks to a video that documented the entire thing.
CNN
Ettel can be seen hysterically saying the little girl is “illegally selling water without a permit” while trying to hide from the camera. The video was shot in San Francisco and is narrated by the little girl’s cousin.
Bizarre Complaints
“This woman doesn’t want to let a little girl sell some water. She called the police on an eight-year-old,” the cousin said, before turning to Ettel: “You can hide all you want. The whole world gonna see you.”
NYTimes
For people harassing others for no reason, the best way to get rid of them is recording them for proof, not just for your own safety but to show authorities later and thankfully, that is exactly what the little girl’s cousin did.
Online Justice
She went home and posted the video, asking for justice for her little cousin, and the people obliged. Within hours, the women’s identity was found by the community, and with over 8 million views there was no hiding for Ettel.
She is the CEO and founder of TreatWell, a company that makes cannabis-based tinctures, and as soon as the video went viral, the booming company began losing both customers and business opportunities.
Wrong Side
Barbary Coast, a San Francisco cannabis dispensary, was one of the first to sever ties with Ettel and TreatWell. “As soon as I saw it, I put the word out to staff to pull it off the shelf immediately and let her know we weren’t doing business with her anymore,” said Jesse Henry, Barbary’s executive director.
San Francisco Chronicle
He added, “That type of behavior just isn’t acceptable.” An Oakland dispensary also announced it was no longer selling TreatWell, saying in a statement that even though it was a “best-selling” product, “integrity is always before profits”.
Her Side
Immediately after the incident, Ettel stayed quiet refraining from making any statements but as she lost more and more customers and was ostracised from her community, she began to retaliate.
Intellectual Takeout
Ettel said she was annoyed by the “yelling” of the mother and daughter and that she called police not to “report them”, instead of saying: “I simply wanted to know if what they were doing was legal.”
“Good Samaritan”
To another newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle she showed remorse and said ” “It was wrong, and I wish I could take it back.” But again her story changed the next day with another newspaper interview.
BBC
The Huffington Post quoted her as saying “this has no racial component to it” and further claimed she was only “pretending” to call the police and never meant to harm the little girl and only wanted to be a good samaritan.
The Little Girl’s Side
In one television interview, the eight-year-old girl was finally asked about her side of the story and the young girl only said “I did not want to see the police because I was scared.”. Her mother added “My daughter just wanted to help”
People
Unfortunately, the little girl’s mother had recently lost her job and with finances so tight, the children had decided to do what they come to help out by selling water and snacks around San Francisco.
Getting Worse
The girl said of Ettel: “She asked me where is my permit. And I didn’t know what a permit was.” The sad innocent words of the young girl only added to the public’s outrage over the whole incident.
CNN
But despite the public shaming these incidents only seem to grow. As the world moves toward race and gender inclusiveness, it is easy to forget that targeted attacks of racism are not present in the modern world but sadly, that is far from the truth. Thanks to social media, the real scope of the day-to-day difficulties faced by minorities can be seen and heard.