A Denver man was extremely offended this weekend and called to complain to a manager at Illegal Pete’s burrito shop over a racist message an employee wrote on his burrito wrapper: Black Olives Matter.
Jovi Wansley told Fox 31 he stopped at Illegal Pete’s with friend Connor Chainhalt on Saturday night and they both ordered burritos to go, Wansley’s with black olives and Chainhalt’s without.
When the two sat down to eat a short time later, Wansely, who is black, discovered the offensive message scrawled on the top of his burrito, like a slap across the face.
“My burrito, on the foil, it says ‘Black Olives Matter,’ in a mockery of Black Lives Matter,” Wansley said. “With everything going on in the world today, I don’t think it’s acceptable.”
Chainhalt was also offended by the burrito.
“This is my good friend,” he said. “And to single him out like that, is not okay, because of his skin color.”
“It’s an ignorant statement. Like you just don’t do that. That’s something you don’t do, especially with everything going on at this point,” he said.
The incident prompted Wansely to call Illegal Pete’s to talk to the manager, who said the message was meant as a joke and apologized. The restaurant owner, Pete Turner, told Fox 31 the employee responsible is not racist, but was instead attempting to distinguish between the burritos and just made a stupid mistake. The employee, who did not know Wansely is black because he works behind a partition, was sent home after Turner received the complaint.
Wansley told the news site the burrito made him feel “helpless.”
“I feel helpless,” he said. “Because no matter what stance, no matter what you do, it seems it never stops. It’s a never-ending story, a never-ending cycle.”
The Denver Black Olives Matter incident follows a similar controversy that played out when an Italian restaurant used the same play on words earlier this summer.
Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Paisano’s restaurant sparked public outrage in July when it put up a billboard message that read: Black Olives Matter, Try Our Tapenade, KOB reports.
“We put up what we thought was a cute play on words, which we do commonly here at the restaurant,” owner Rick Camuglia told the news site. “We were trying to promote our pan-seared Ahi tuna with a black olive tapenade relish. And so we put ‘black olives matter, try our tapenade.’”
Shortly after news of his sign was featured in the national media, Camuglia received requests for Black Olives Matter souvenirs and he recently started selling hats and t-shirts with the catchphrase, which has prompted both praise and ridicule on his Facebook page, the New York Daily News reports.
“We’re sending T-shirts to Alaska, from sea to shining sea and from coast to coast and from border to border,” Camuglia said. “It’s mind-blowing, to say the least.”
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