WASHINGTON — It’s a vision no one would ever expect to wake up to.
“Almost 90% of products, and some equipment, not obviously huge machines,” Jessica McClain said, the owner of Black and White Look Optical D.C.
In a matter of minutes, the business she spent four years building along U Street was virtually destroyed by rioters.
“In the video, it’s multiple people. Maybe like nine or 10 people, but by the time we got there, they left. So, we couldn't even tell if they were with them, so we're thinking that they may be arrived just like, ‘Oh, business is open, the front door is open, the window is broken,’ kind of like you know they were second on the scene for it.” McClain added.
Jessica is a new mom, a wife, and a black business owner. She handpicked that location to sell trendy glasses.
Giving fashion to those who need help seeing.
“Oh, it's so uneasy it’s very disheartening because it's just, it's I feel like it's deflecting from what we're what they're really trying to do, you know what we're really trying to say about the police brutality,” she added.
A movement McClain supports, but not at the expense of damaging business in the process.
“We definitely want to be heard. It is a sector where we are just not heard and so everyone coming together, the organization is everything, I was thinking of like you all are grouped together it's telling you all you could really be doing something great.”
The Coronavirus pandemic closed their doors during the stay-at-home orders. They were planning to reopen this Monday.
“We had remodeled the store, we set it up for social distancing,” McClain said.
Now the vision they had of the grand reopening, is blurred by those who took so much.