There Is Only One Latasha Harlins - Homeisode 60
This Homeisode discusses the killing of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins and its reflection in the film Menace II Society.
On March 16, 1991, Latasha Harlins, an African American girl, was fatally shot in the back of the head by store owner Soon Ja Du at Empire Liquor Market after being wrongfully accused of shoplifting. Harlins was holding $2 for orange juice. Du received no jail time, fueling deep racial tension between the Korean American business community and Black residents of South Central L.A. This injustice was a major catalyst for the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
The 1993 film Menace II Society captures this atmosphere of mistrust. In a pivotal scene, the character O-Dog is aggressively confronted by a Korean store owner demanding, "Hurry up and buy, motherf*****!"
This dialogue mirrors the real-life hostility. While the fictional scene ends in hyper-violent double murder and robbery, unlike Harlins' quiet tragedy, it powerfully reflects the pervasive feeling of being profiled and devalued.
Latasha Harlins remains a symbol of systemic injustice. Her death and Du’s lenient sentencing proved to many that the justice system failed Black youth. Menace II Society used the "Hurry up and buy" dynamic to immortalize the explosive racial tension of the early 90s, validating community grievance and transforming the Harlins case into a cultural touchstone that helped prime the city for the riots.
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What's up, people? It's your boy Quincy Murdaugh
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with another episode of Not Just Music Podcast,
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where we keep it real and honest. Today I want
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to talk about Latasha Harlins. This was a key,
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key figure. A lot of times we hear about a lot
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of police brutality, a lot of police shootings.
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a lot of racial injustice, a lot of things centered
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around the Rodney King beating that took place
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in Los Angeles. There was a lot of stuff going
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on and during that time it was a lot of outsiders,
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foreigners that had businesses and stores in
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Los Angeles area in these black communities.
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I don't know if a lot of people are familiar
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with menace and society where Old dog goes in
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the store and it's a Korean lady or whatnot and
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a man in there is like hurry up and buy This
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was real life. It was a lot of Koreans taking
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over the stores around this time where a lot
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of black Issues were going on where black individuals
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were being mistreated Unfortunately, and one
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person I want to read about is a key figure.
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Her name is Latasha Harlins Latasha Harlins was
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a 15 -year -old African -American girl who was
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shot and killed over a $1 .79 bottle of orange
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juice in the liquor store in South Central Los
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Angeles on March 16, 1991. The incident involved
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a confrontation with the store owner, Soon Ja
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-do, a Korean woman who shot Harlins in the back
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of the head and the act was captured on security
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video, which is on YouTube if y 'all want to
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see that. This event occurred shortly after the
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beating of Rodney King by police intensifying
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Existing racial tensions between african -americans
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and korean -americans in the area during the
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trial Harlins family faced dismissal remarks
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from the Presiding judge who suggested that the
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tragedy could have been avoided if Harlins had
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not entered the store Can you imagine it? So
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basically she Long if you didn't enter the store
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like so we didn't have those rights as every
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other individuals what this judge was saying
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She wasn't so she wouldn't got killed If she
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just wanted to went into the store, which was
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her Freedom of speech her free free right in
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this world. We call America and the judge said
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this What's going on? It's your boy Duann Barrino
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was convicted of voluntary manslaughter but received
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probation. a verdict that sparked outrage within
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the African -American community and led to increased
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hostility towards Korean -owned businesses. This
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incident, along with the Rodney King case, contributed
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to the civil unrest and riots that erupted in
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Los Angeles in 1992, highlighted deep seated
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issues of racial conflict and injustice in urban
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communities. The murder of Latasha Harlins remains
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a significant event in discussions about race
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relations, systematic inequality and violence
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in America. Yeah, so deep, deep story. Deep,
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deep story of Latasha. There's many more stories
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that were similar to this, but this shows the
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injustice of what blacks have to go through.
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Back then, we still go through to this day, so
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I wanted to bring awareness to that. Los Angeles
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was hot back then, you know, a lot of tensions,
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a lot of racial tensions and things like that.
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Latasha Harlan, she also has a movie about her.
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This is how I found out about her. I actually
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watched a movie, touching movie, called Latasha
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Harlan's. It's on Tubi. People actually wanted
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to see this biopic of her. It's a very, very
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well put movie, well put together movie, great
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actor. So it's good to see that her story, unfortunately
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how it ended is sad, but how it was put into
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something that was celebrated and rewarded. And
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we celebrated Latasha and all the many victims
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we've lost to violence. All the black, innocent
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individuals that we've lost. Bringing light to
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this. So if you want to check her biopic out
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song to be Latasha Harlings the movie like I
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said, it deals with a lot of Black issues and
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trauma like I think she had lost her mother at
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a young age lost her mother And her father wasn't
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in the house house and she dealt with a lot of
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anger issues mental issues as a lot of black
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African Americans deal with in the situations
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were brought up in, you know, it also brings
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tension to mental health mental awareness psychologically,
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so It's a it's a story that needs to be told.
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It's a story that needs to be heard and I'm glad
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they gave Latasha Harlins a platform Hi, so once
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again, it's boy Quincy Murdoch with another episode
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and I just music podcast where we keep it really
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honest
