My daughter and I bought a comic book at Atomic City Comics, about halfway between our home and her school. We actually stop in often, probably at least once a month. It’s on South Street, which is a destination street in Philly and has a jumble of businesses and restaurants of all kinds, though it’s generally more “street” than “upscale.” I never thought of the comic book store as a black-owned business. I knew the owners (he's African-American, she's Asian) a little, before I ever went into the store, because my daughter went to preschool with their son. (The preschool was also, by the way, a black-owned business.) I’ve probably bought a dozen to two dozen comic books there over the last few years, all for my daughter or as gifts for her friends or cousins.
When asked to participate in the One Large project, I thought, huh, do I know any black-owned businesses? And then started remembering the ones (including the two mentioned above) I either patronize or walk by regularly. Philly has a lot of problems caused by and perpetuating economic and racial injustice. It’s also 44.2% black, according to the 2010 census, numbers which don’t tell much of a story, but it has a pretty integrated downtown and an established black middle class.
I’ve never felt self-conscious about race at Atomic City Comics. The person I most often see working the counter is an extremely pleasant African-American guy—not the owner. I chat with him a little sometimes, not usually about much—whether or not he has such and such comic book. The weather. The patrons seem to be comic book geeks of various ethnicities. I chatted with him a little more than usual today as I was giving him $10.59 for Little Adventures of Oz, Vol. 1 by Eric Shanower, partly because I was there explicitly to spend at least $10 by midnight for One Large, and partly because he was wearing a tee-shirt with a Superman logo, only instead of an S in the five-sided chest medallion, there was a hammer-and-sickle. I asked him about it and he said it wasn’t a statement of political allegiance but rather a reference to an episode in which Superman lands in the Soviet Union.
If the owner had been at the counter instead of his employee I likely would have described the One Large project to him. Perhaps I was a little relieved not to have to talk about it. This is a place where I’m (maybe) known and where I know the people (casually) and there has never been discomfort about buying the product. But I also thought he might be interested. I don't really have a problem talking to people of various races about race where it’s relevant—I used to be a journalist and you just ask what you want to ask, hopefully politely—though it behooves me, I would think, to be somewhat more alert to how the other person is feeling than I might otherwise be, when race is the explicit subject between two people of different races. It doesn’t seem unlikely that they might feel that way too.
When asked to participate in the One Large project, I thought, huh, do I know any black-owned businesses? And then started remembering the ones (including the two mentioned above) I either patronize or walk by regularly. Philly has a lot of problems caused by and perpetuating economic and racial injustice. It’s also 44.2% black, according to the 2010 census, numbers which don’t tell much of a story, but it has a pretty integrated downtown and an established black middle class.
I’ve never felt self-conscious about race at Atomic City Comics. The person I most often see working the counter is an extremely pleasant African-American guy—not the owner. I chat with him a little sometimes, not usually about much—whether or not he has such and such comic book. The weather. The patrons seem to be comic book geeks of various ethnicities. I chatted with him a little more than usual today as I was giving him $10.59 for Little Adventures of Oz, Vol. 1 by Eric Shanower, partly because I was there explicitly to spend at least $10 by midnight for One Large, and partly because he was wearing a tee-shirt with a Superman logo, only instead of an S in the five-sided chest medallion, there was a hammer-and-sickle. I asked him about it and he said it wasn’t a statement of political allegiance but rather a reference to an episode in which Superman lands in the Soviet Union.
If the owner had been at the counter instead of his employee I likely would have described the One Large project to him. Perhaps I was a little relieved not to have to talk about it. This is a place where I’m (maybe) known and where I know the people (casually) and there has never been discomfort about buying the product. But I also thought he might be interested. I don't really have a problem talking to people of various races about race where it’s relevant—I used to be a journalist and you just ask what you want to ask, hopefully politely—though it behooves me, I would think, to be somewhat more alert to how the other person is feeling than I might otherwise be, when race is the explicit subject between two people of different races. It doesn’t seem unlikely that they might feel that way too.
One Large participant: DF
Name of black-owned business: Atomic City Comics
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Race/ethnicity of participant: White
