Racist "art" at restaurant, denial by restaurant that it's racist

[gollygee]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ee_pdJiXgAIjnqs?format=jpg&name=4096x4096 <-- follow to see "art"

My response is that we all need to say something when we see something like this, and none of us should eat there. Too many white people have eaten at this restaurant and have ignored it.

Here's the twitter thread from Toure'

Had a very unpleasant moment today with some disappointingly predictable white people when I tried to explain to them how the statue depicted below is insanely racist. It sits on the wall in the dining room of a restaurant. Let me tell you about it.

There's a large statue on the wall of the dining room of Foster's Coach House Tavern @coachfoster77
in Rhinebeck, NY. It's a Black man with huge lips & bugged out eyes, being dragged by a horse & plow. Very racist image. 1st thing you see when you enter the dining room. Wow.

Today I spoke to a manager about it. I said the food here is fine, but why is this insanely racist statue on the wall in the dining room? Is that what y'all are about? She and her team did not get it at all. It was a fairly comical display of white blindness.

The manager said it’s not racist. I said it’s undeniably racist. Look at his lips and his eyes and... She said well it’s been here since the 1890s. (An argument that defeats itself.) I said it's 2020. She said she was not racist. I wasn't saying she was. But that statue is.

She said the statue is history. Huh? I said that’s not an accurate historical representation. Then she said it’s art. I said it’s extremely offensive art. Is that what you guys are all about? Is that what this place is about? She said...

She said people have been getting a little crazy over the last few months which I took to mean she thinks people are oversensitive about race nowadays. She said there's lots of caricaturish art on the walls here. I said none of it makes white people look like lesser humans.

At that point she said, Look, if you don’t want to eat here that’s your choice. We don’t see it as racist. Then someone else who worked there jumped in to say it’s a private business we don’t have to listen to you.

They were a predictable caricature of ignorant white people who not only can’t see obviously racist symbols and are quick to dismiss them as just “art” or "history" and refuse to see them when they're pointed out and dismiss the idea that they're racist as "oversensitivity."

This is exactly what we encounter when we demand statues extolling slaveowners be taken down—white people who say I don't see it as racist, and say, It's history. It's art. You're being oversensitive. What's the big deal? Art shapes how people feel about the world.

The way history is told shapes how people feel about the world. History is not some objective record. Ignorantly-told history, just like racist art, perpetuates the idea that Black people are lesser. It's not history, it's propaganda.

It’s not acceptable to have insanely racist art on the wall of your restaurant. It’s offensive and unwelcoming. But I didn’t expect them to take that racist statue down right away and I didn’t really expect them to be able to see it as racist.

If you live in an overwhelmingly white very small town where people are rarely pushed to think about these things then you may be so blind that even when someone points it out to you, you still can't see it.

We know that racism is learned but anti-racism is also learned. If you're living in a comfortable bubble of small town whiteness then learning anti-racism could feel like unnecessary work. If seeing racism is hard for you then anti-racism would feel pointless.

I can't eat Foster's food knowing that that's on the wall. But they don't care. There’s several places in this town with Black Lives Matter signs but there’s not one at Foster’s Coach House. Maybe they don't care. Maybe that statue *is* what they're all about. I don't know.

I did not expect them to take it down right away but if I said nothing I would be complicit. I can't force them to do anything but I can't know that a racist statue exists and be silent. This is also goes for white allies—if you see racism and say nothing you're complicit.

I tried to push them to think about what they're doing by keeping that on the wall. They were unwilling to see how the obviously racist statue on their wall is racist. I know I am not the first person to complain about it but they're committed to keeping it up. Because...?

[Squinch]

1. Obviously racist. So clearly so that I don't believe that they don't know that it is.

[Beakybird]

2. Yelp about it on Yelp.

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. Stupid racists fucks.

[brush]

5. Give them a bad review on Yelp for that obviously racist wall "art".