New Jersey Community Rallies Behind Black-Owned Bookstore Following Racist Threat

After receiving racist and violent threats last month, Sandra Dear was embraced with love and support from her community in New Jersey.

What We Know:

• The Black bookstore owner was the victim of a series of disturbing emails received within a 15-minute span, followed by a phone call that spewed death threats at her. In an Instagram post from Nov. 22, Dear wrote in a post explaining the incidents. “Last night a tear finally escaped.”
• “These emails were quickly [followed] by a racially charged phone call to the store where [verbal] threats were made against my life,” the post read. “Shaken, I contacted the authorities, who responded swiftly, assuring me that the matter would be given the utmost attention and that all steps would be taken to ensure that no harm came to me.”

 

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A post shared by The Little Boho Bookshop (@littlebohobookshop)

• Bayonne police identified the criminal as Qiuewn Zheng and charged the 59-year old with making terroristic threats, bias intimidation, and cyber-harassment. He is currently being held at Hudson County Correctional Center without bail. According to Dear, who was not at the bookshop at the time, Zheng’s threats were tracked down by police and he was captured the next day as he approached the bookstore on Nov. 21.
• One week after the arrest, Dear shared another post to social media, though this time it was one of joy and gratitude. “One week to the day of one of [the] most difficult moments of my life, you walked into my happy place yesterday with an overriding message, ‘Love overcomes Hate,’” she wrote on Facebook. “Please know that I saw you, I heard you, was completely moved by you, but mostly I thank you for seeing me.”
• Members of the community showed up at the Little Boho Bookshop on Small Business Saturday to purchase books from Dear, with some customers even waiting in lines to enter the shop. Dear purchased the store in the summer of 2017 and The Little Boho Bookshop opened its doors on July 31st of that very year.

Despite her warm welcome to the neighborhood, Dear expressed that she has also received racially insensitive letters, emails, and messages. “Get out, we do not want your kind here,” one note from August 2017 read, as reported by NBC News.