What genius came up with this promotion?
From WTAT:
Some University of Pittsburgh students in Oakland are boycotting a popular campus bar.
The Garage Door Saloon on Atwood Street is catching some flak for a sign advertising its midweek special: "Wetback Wednesday."
The special nets you five Coronitas for $7 and 75-cent tacos.
Some passers-by found the ad hanging in the window of the Garage Door offensive.
"It's a racial slur to Hispanics," said Art Digiacomo. "You wouldn't put the 'N' word up there."
The sign has prompted a group of students to boycott the establishment.
...But other students said they might be overreacting.
"I don't find it offensive," one student said. "Just advertising Coronas."
"I've seen 'White Trash Wednesdays' and 'Trailer Park Tuesdays,' and they haven't received any kind of hype," said the bar's owner, who said his name was Mark.
..."There's a lot more things going on in the streets of Oakland, like robberies and stuff like that, opposed to a bar running a drink special and 75-cent tacos," he said.
Garage Door employees have since put a new sign up on the building, which reads, "For the easily offended. Now offering Mexican American Wednesdays."
Employees said it doesn’t look like they'll be changing their Wednesday special any time soon, especially since business has picked up since the controversial sign has made headlines.
I don't see how anyone can claim that using the term "wetback" is an appropriate way to advertise drink and food specials.
There's no question that it's offensive.
But it did boost business. Go figure.
2 comments:
According to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination UN International Conventions:
Part I, article 1.
[T]he term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.
This definition does not make any difference between prosecutions based on ethnicity and race, in part because the distinction between the ethnicity and race remains debatable among anthropologists According to British law, racial group means "any group of people who are defined by reference to their race, colour, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origin".
Your outrage is a bit odd. My post condemns the use of the term "wetback." Nowhere in the post do I mention race. I do have the post labeled as "racism." Going by the above definition, I think it's appropriate.
Did you try to read the UN's definition?
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