Clustered together at the corner of State and Oak in a hodgepodge uncharacteristic of the Gold Coast is a corrective-shoe store, a grammar school, and an Italian restaurant. Directly across from the school’s playground stands another Gold Coast oddity: a shop displaying cowrie-shell necklaces, neon-colored embroidered T-shirts, and yellow mudcloth vests and hats. Accented with sleek, clean-lined, black-and-white decor and filled with colorful ethnic clothes and jewelry, Maasai, at 947 N. State, is owned by two young African American entrepreneurs.
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Another day a 50-ish woman in Ferragamo shoes walks into the store. She smiles and nods to Darius Caine, Miller’s 31-year-old partner, who is behind the counter. “You have some beautiful things,” she tells him. “Where do you get them?” “We import them from different parts of Africa,” he tells her. As Miller walks in from the back room, the woman raises a penciled eyebrow and wags her finger at the two. “Why is it necessary for you all to call yourselves African American?” she asks. “You’re American; nothing else matters.” “Ma’am, it’s a matter of choice,” says Miller, trying to steady her rising voice.
Miller is a Chicago native; Caine grew up in New York. He sees being a business owner of color in Chicago as a lesson in ambiguity. “In New York the only thing that separates you from doing what you want to do is money. Here there are barriers that you really can’t see, like when you’re trying to get bank loans. It’s very subjective; you’re turned down for intangible things.”
“The racism here is mind-boggling because it’s not in your face,” says Miller. “People are like, ‘You’re educated Negroes, you have a business. What are you complaining about?’ It’s so covert and under the table. I think a lot of it comes from stereotypes.”
Two months later, Caine and Miller were in another accident: again they were on the Dan Ryan, and again they were hit from the back by an 18-wheeler. Neither of them was hurt very badly; they didn’t even close the store.
“This is about more than me and Darius struggling,” says Miller. “It’s about the struggle of a people. I know we’ll make it, just like our ancestors made it all the way through the Middle Passage. That’s what keeps us going.”
