Backyard Social received so many threatening calls Saturday that staff decided to turn off the restaurant’s phone.
“What’s your name?” one caller asked Latima Chambers, co-owner of the N Killingsworth restaurant. She refused to answer the question. “That doesn’t matter, I will Google your business and I will find you,” Chambers recalls him replying. The threats have now spread to Backyard Social’s Facebook, Yelp, Google Business, and Instagram pages.
That’s because on Monday, May 21, Backyard Social hosted an event dubbed “Reparations Happy Hour,” put together by local activist (and former mayoral candidate) Cameron Whitten.
The premise is simple enough: A monthly get-together for people of color to hold a discussion on a local policy issue over drinks and snacks. White people were asked not to attend. Oh, and each attendee of color gets $10 to do whatever they please with. Ideally, that $10 comes from a white person’s wallet.
Before you explode with NO FAIR white rage, let me remind you what the word “reparations” means: “the payment of damages… compensation in money or materials payable by a defeated nation for damages to or expenditures sustained by another nation as a result of hostilities with the defeated nation.”
In recent years, politicians and civil rights groups have brought up the need for reparations to be given to Americans whose ancestors were enslaved and have faced centuries of racial injustice—most conversations have centered on descendants of Africans who had been brought to America via the Atlantic Slave Trade.
The idea gained recent momentum in 2014, when Ta-Nehisi Coates penned a feature in the Atlantic titled “A Case for Reparations,” that tactfully calculates the financial (and emotional) burden of being Black in the United States.
Which brings us back to Whitten’s happy hour.
The inaugural May 21 meeting drew at least 30 attendees to Backyard Social, a restaurant that regularly hosts gatherings for local nonprofits. Whitten opened a tab and bought a round of drinks (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic) for the group. Participants sipped cocktails, talked politics, and took photos holding their $10 bill. Backyard Social opted to donate 10 percent of its total sales that day to Brown Hope, Whitten’s nonprofit that organized the event (Backyard Social has done the same for other nonprofits its hosted, like Planned Parenthood and the ACLU). Dozens of community members specifically stopped by Backyard Social to purchase dinner and drinks, wanting to contribute to Brown Hope, Chambers said.
And then, the internet exploded.
The photos of smiling attendees waving their $10 reparations quickly went viral—and drew quick ire from alt-right groups, calling the event an act of “reverse racism” (eyeroll) and from people of color, who noted that hosting a happy hour for populations inequitably impacted by alcoholism may not be the best idea. Since the event, Whitten’s been interviewed by a number of national outlets—and even took on Fox News’ token snickering child Tucker Carlson.
Whitten, a longtime activist who’s dealt with his fair share of opposition, was prepared to stand up and take fire for his contentious event.
The businesses that offered to host his event, however, were not. Since the event gained momentum online, Backyard Social’s been swarmed with alt-right trolls, giving them terrible Yelp reviews and flooding their phone line with calls accusing them of racism.
“They wouldn’t let me in because I was too white!” says Randy S., from New York City, NY.
“Don’t patronize this racist establishment!” says Jeremy D from Brooklyn, NY.
“Horrible service. Felt racism from staff!” says Nick from Washington.
Chambers certainly didn’t expect this kind of response, especially since the event itself went so smoothly. She’s been forced to file a police report against the wave of threatening calls to her store—most of them calling from out-of-state numbers. Neither she nor her fellow staffers have encountered in-person threats.
But this hasn’t changed her support of Brown Hope’s movement.
“In this political climate, we need to have this conversation,” she says.
Chambers has been meeting with the owners of Back to Eden Bakery, the shop lined up to host June’s edition of the Reparations Happy Hour, to provide moral support. As of now, Back to Eden has no plans on ducking out.
“It’s been very stressful and very scary,” Chambers said. “But the worst thing to do is to back down or hide.”
Love the Yelper from New York getting all loud at Backyard Social, but likely wouldn’t walk through Bushwick without a police escort.
I seriously am so fucking sick of white people (and I am white). Fuck all of you. The white skin on your ass does not make you special and the systemic racism and white supremacist bullshit in this state and in this country is OUT OF FUCKING CONTROL. FFS when are people going to stop with this insane bullshit? If you believe the white skin on your ass makes you special or more important than other human beings you are DELUSIONAL, DERANGED, AND DANGEROUS. PERIOD. And you know what is done with such animals? They get put down. #ENOUGH
@1 Bushwick is fully gentrified and very white now.
@1 I correct myself – it is mostly Hispanic, with white people now making up the 2nd largest demographic.
Just curious though – whether or not anyone thinks it’s “fair” or not – is this legal? “White people were asked to not attend” – but were they barred from entering? Because I think that goes against anti-discrimination laws. You can’t exclude people based on their skin color.
Just to clarify, there was no physical attack? Still scary AF.
Holy shit I’d never actually seen a full Tucker Carlson piece before. His facial expressions are insane. Either slack jawed and dumbfounded or passive aggressively loud laughing. Is he really drunk? Or just a fucking idiot? Both? He reminds me of the type of blue blood twat that probably went to Yale as a legacy and never actually worked in his life. It’s genuinely scary that anyone thinks this douche is intelligent or offers anything meaningful to say. O’Reilly at least displayed some cognitive ability, and Beck is at least a good actor and showman. This is where FOX is now?
If you didn’t know that Bushwick has been a latino neighborhood since forever (though there were pockets of Italians and Jews before then, but they don’t count?), I sincerely doubt your NY creds.
I applaud Backyard Social for hosting this. But as usual, poorly written half editorial/screed, Alex. You really could have eliminated about half of it, and had a decent article. Never miss an invitation to scold: how else will we all be forced to acknowledge your inherent goodness?
@rich bachelor Alex is consistently the worst and most painful writer to read here at the ‘Merc. Preening and faux-edgy with horrible flow. Good snark is fun to read. Alex falls flat every time.