In about a month, a Colorado barbecue will hold a white appreciation day. This week the owner announced the 10 percent discount, which was originally for white people, will be extended to everyone.
“Heavens no,” said Sally Sears, owner of Café Ibis in Logan, when asked if her business would ever host a white appreciation day. “We all need to get together, we all need to work together and we all need to celebrate diversity and each other.”
“Not at all,” said Stephanie Miller, manager of Center Street Grill when asked the same question. “I appreciate every single person whether they’re purple, white, rainbow, like I don’t see that at all.”
“Nope,” said Surreal Ink Body Piercing owner Nicholas Barker. “I would say half of our clientele is not white, 80 percent of our town is, and I really just think I’d fall into the same thing that guy did. Eating his words, going back, giving everybody a discount just because [a] couple people were mad.”
Antillon Jimenez, one of the owners of the Colorado barbecue at the center of the controversy, said he decided to have a day to appreciate white Americans because there is already a Black History Month and a Hispanic Heritage Month.
Utah State University psychology professor, Melanie Domenech Rodríguez, who researches ethnicity issues, said she doesn’t think there needs to be a white history month because history books mostly outline the accomplishments of white people.
“It is not to diminish the achievements of European American or European men of light skin,” Rodríguez said. “I think the broader issue is that there is so much more than that, and we don’t see at all. We’re not seeing the full spectrum of accomplishments and greatness.”
Though critics have said the idea for a white appreciation day is racist, Rodríguez said it depends on people’s intentions. If they sincerely want to celebrate their heritage, she says it’s great, but if it’s out of spite because other people are doing it, that’s when it’s racist.