A restaurant in Greenville, North Carolina, took a stand against the rhetoric of Donald Trump and some of his supporters.
On Wednesday, a sign was placed in a local restaurant, The Scullery, announcing that all of the day’s proceeds would be donated to an organization supporting migrants. The sign was put up just hours before the president appeared at a local rally and his supporters chanted “send her back” after he spoke about Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who was born in Somalia but is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
“100% of today’s sales will be donated to American Immigration Council in order to help with the immigration crisis at our southern border and to celebrate our diverse community,” read a post shared on The Scullery’s Facebook page.
Days earlier, Trump had posted a series of racist tweets against four Democratic congresswomen of color, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, urging them to “go back” to the “crime-infested places from which they came,” despite the fact that they are American.
Opening up about why he chose to take such a public stance, restaurant owner Matthew Scully shared that he wanted to help “spread a positive message.”
“I had already been thinking about the president and especially about his comments over the past couple of days and it’s just sort of difficult to wrap your head around it,” he told Newsweek. “It brought up negativity and division in our community…and that’s just kind of hard to sit and watch.”
Scully, who is a father of three, went on to share that he felt “sad and offended” that some members of his community were present at the rally, and could have participated in the racist chant.
“It’s just really embarrassing for my community, telling people to ‘go back where they came from’,” he said.
The restaurant owner went on to share that the sign attracted hundreds of customers, and they ended up making over $5,800 in sales.
The four representatives targeted by Trump gave a joint news conference on Monday responding to Trump.
“This is simply a disruption and a distraction from the callous, chaotic and corrupt culture of this administration,” Pressley said, as Ocasio-Cortez added, “We don’t leave the things that we love, and when we love this country, what that means is that we propose the solutions to fix it.”
Although Trump was widely condemned for his remarks, the president went on to defend his comments on Tuesday.
“I don’t have a racist bone in my body” he claimed, before continuing to attack the women for their “filthy language, statements and lies” and claiming that they “hate” America.
Source: Read Full Article