Source: Instagram/@GetThisDance / Instagram/@GetThisDance
Black people have always used humor to cope with some of the world’s gravest atrocities perpetuated against our bodies. Johnniqua Charles, a 27-year-old from Dillon, South Carolina, joined this tradition when she was detained unnecessarily by a security guard.
Charles said the video from February going viral has changed her life.
Charles was homeless, dealing with addiction and estranged from her family but after the video went viral and people started taking up donations on her behalf, things have started to turn around.
In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Charles said, “I’m just overwhelmed, and I’m such a humble person [that] to see that, it’s just amazing to me. I’m just glad that it’s something so positive.”
Charles’ video has been viewed countless times and has been remixed by DJ Suede, the Remix god and iMarkkeyz.
The video was first posted by security guard Julius Locklear on February 5, when he wrote: “Okay IM NOT POSTING THIS TO BE FUNNY TOWARDS THIS SUBJECT!!!! I’m posting it cause that rap was lit like I wish I could put a beat to it lol.”
Locklear, who works in bail enforcement, said the incident took place outside of the Diamonds Gentlemen’s Club. It was his colleague who filed the incident when his body camera wasn’t working. He detained Charles because she had been trespassing after she was asked twice to leave the club.
Charles said she was trying to get back in because she left her purse inside.
Charles told BuzzFeed, “I guess he thought I was going back in just to go back inside the club, but he wouldn’t allow me, and that’s how the argument between me and him started. I told him to suck my dick, and that is the moment he basically put the handcuffs on me and tussled with me a little bit.”
Locklear said, “I just let her vent and exercise her freedom of speech.”
Locklear said the incident had nothing to do with race or discrimination but he could not keep a straight face.
When deputies arrived on the scene, Charles was free to go. No charges were filed.
Charles said, “He didn’t have a reason. He didn’t have anything to charge me with. Because what would be the charge?”
Locklear did not lose his job.
Charles learned that she’d gone viral after a former classmate sent it to her on Facebook. Later, her sister reached out to her.
Charles had been doing sex work to survive and hadn’t spoken to her family since November of last year. Her family members were caring for her three-year-old son Juju.
“I’d been on the streets, and they’d been looking for me,” Charles said. “And I guess they seen that this video could basically change my life, and they put out a whole search party to find me.”
Charles is now living with her family trying to rebuild her life.
Her sister Andrea set up an Instagram page and GoFundMe for Charles which raised over $50,000. There have been several fraudulent sites that were created. You can also donate directly through PayPal.
“The only reason that the GoFundMe and those platforms were created [was because] people were begging to donate to her. Once I made her Instagram, people were flooding in, saying, ‘How can I bless her? She just blessed my day so much. She just made my day.’ So the only reason it was created was so people could bless her life.”
The money will go toward Charles, her son and resources to help “keep her on the right track, just keep her here.”
In an Instagram post, Andrea shared that they are in the process of working withe Suede the remix God and imarkkeyz so her sister can get her cut for the use of her vocals on the song.
Charles said the moment was the breakthrough she needed.
“Other people keep telling me I helped them so much, but they don’t understand — nobody understands — how much this video going viral like this is helping me, because it’s giving me the breakthrough I so badly needed for so long. It’s a lot of tears from everybody. They just want to be reassured because it’s been ongoing with me battling this addiction — this has been, like, six years — and they just want to be reassured that this is no more, that they don’t have to stress about where I may be. They never want me to be in the streets ever again and live that lifestyle.”
Andrea said the video going viral and reuniting Charles to her family was divine timing.
“I just feel like this was all from God,” Andrea said. “These people have been blessing her and doing that out of the kindness of their heart. I just feel like that’s all God.”
