Racism at Joe's Crab Shack

I was looking for inspiration on what to write for my blog-post this week when I got distracted, as usual. This time it was by BuzzFeed, and my distraction ended up leading me to find the thing that I wanted to talk about.

In Roseville, Minnesota two people recently discovered a racist photo inside a table at a Joe’s Crab Shack. The picture is of a lynching that happened in Texas in 1895. If it is already not awful enough that they have that embedded into a table at a “family-friendly” restaurant, then maybe the text on the picture will be. Right to the side of the hanging man there is is a text bubble and inside it reads, “All I said was, ‘I don’t like the gumbo!” Are you kidding me ?!

When I saw this article I got insanely angry, and I am still angry as I am writing this post. It is never okay to exploit a terrible situation to try and benefit for yourself. In an interview attached to the article a man said that we would never see a picture like this of something like the Holocaust, and in my opinion he is right. Someone had intentionally embedded this picture into the table, and the company chose to keep it because I don’t believe for one second that they didn’t realize it was there.

What is also really worrying to me is the fact that this hasn’t become an issue sooner. Who knows how long that table has been there, but I’m thinking since the restaurant opened. Was everyone who sat at that table a racist? Why did they not report the issue sooner? It makes me wonder if people I know would stand up and say something about the table.

Here is the link to the article if you guys want to check it out: http://www.buzzfeed.com/tamerragriffin/a-joes-crab-shack-decorated-a-table-with-a-photo-of-a-black#.txmVnM9ak