After receiving a lot of criticism and a bomb threat, the owner of a barbeque restaurant in Milliken, Colorado has changed his plan to offer a “White Appreciation Day” discount to white customers.
Restaurant co-owner Edgar Antillon had recently said it was unlikely that he would offer a discount to other racial groups. However, he changed his description of the event and says that any American – white, black, Asian, or Hispanic – who visits his restaurant on June 11, “White Appreciation Day”, will be offered the same 10% discount. A few days before the plans were changed the restaurant received a bomb threat, which forced an evacuation.
What started off as a joke about how there’s no holiday that celebrates the white community and morphed into an actual event has been misinterpreted as a racially charged promotion, Antillo said. Some people dismissed the plan as a publicity stunt; others condemned it as a racist promotion that downplayed the history of racial inequality in the U.S. Ricardo Romero, a civil rights activist, called the plan a perpetuation of racism. Defending his idea, Antillo stated, “We are an amazing culture here in the U.S. We’re a melting pot. But we should include white people in that, too. We need to end the white guilt because they’re included in this American history and they should be included just like everyone else.”
Antillon apologized to the community of Milliken and to the restaurant’s former owners who have also been the target of threatening messages. “Our intention was not to put white people on a pedestal,” he said. “It was merely to fight fire with fire.”
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