When Wes Williams was called to the Burger IM restaurant he owns in Dallas’ historic West End early Saturday morning, he was one of many business owners left picking up the pieces following the protests of police killings of black people.
While the weekend unrest over the death George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25, left a bad taste in the mouths of many, Williams took it on the chin.
“I couldn’t get mad that my glass got broken, because I understood exactly why it happened,” he says.
The Detroit native, who came to Dallas in 2007 to join the Dallas Fire-Rescue Department ― where he still works ― saw becoming a franchise owner as a way to create passive income.
“I’ve always been big in investing,” Williams says. “I got the majority of my capital through real estate, flipping houses. I always thought about franchises and owning one. “
While simultaneously working as a firefighter, Williams opened his Burger IM location on Oct. 31, 2019. Aside from bringing a black-owned business to the area, Williams provided jobs for people of color as well. All of which came to a halt over the past weekend.
“Initially we closed at 9 p.m. Friday night,” Williams says. “And I left for the day but then came back around midnight to check on the location. I knew there were going to be protests going on. Everything was good. I even came back at two in the morning to check on the location, and everything was good.”
So, Williams left. But around 3 a.m., he got a text and a picture from a former employee saying, “I think somebody’s trying break into your location, they already busted two windows.” Immediately after, his property manager called with the same information.
“In my mind I was thinking, ‘I hope nobody came in and tore up stuff,’” Williams says. “But when I got here my two front windows were busted out. So essentially it was just glass everywhere. And I found the rock that was thrown. There was an initial sense of anger and frustration, but it lasted for about five minutes. It happens. It’s a luxury tax. It comes with the territory.”
Williams cleaned up the mess, got his windows boarded up, and made a post on social media, informing people his restaurant had been vandalized and that he would still be open for business as usual. And he went to sleep. When he arrived at his restaurant later that day, there was an outpouring of support from the community.
“When I got here the whole city came out, it turned into one big block party,” Williams says, mentioning Mavericks owner Mark Cuban as one of the supporters who showed up. “Your network is your net worth. You do good business, you put out good energy towards people, and they’re going to bring it back.”
Brian Ivey of Oak Cliff came to Burger IM on Sunday. “I came yesterday, but it was a long line and I had my wife and my child with me,” he says.
Other patrons expressed concern over hitting black people’s businesses, which they said doesn’t make sense.
And while it doesn’t make sense to some, it makes sense to others that picking up shattered glass is a small, unfortunate price to pay for the countless families that have been shattered.
“I wish this didn’t happen,” Williams says. “I wish that we wouldn’t tear up our community, but I get it. I understand why. I understand people’s frustration. I think other cultures don’t understand why. There’s a miseducation in regards to really understanding us as a culture and things that we’ve gone through and things that still haunt us to this day. It’s post-traumatic stress. Individuals don’t get that. That’s cool if you don’t, but don’t be so quick to be judgmental on the reaction. You need to understand what the cause was.”
