Last week, Buffalo Wild Wings staff in Naperville told a group of Black people, including 12 Black kids celebrating a birthday party, to move locations because a white customer did not want to sit near Black people. Jim Crow tactics are not only disgusting, they are devastating to experience. Naperville’s Buffalo Wild Wing staff treated these families and kids like they were nothing, and we aren’t going to let them get away with it. Will you join us in holding them accountable?
While the staff involved have been fired, Buffalo Wild Wings must commit to anti-bias trainings. It’s time that corporations take a proactive stance when it comes to combating racial injustice on their premises. Justin Vahl and Marcus Riley only wanted to take their families and kids they care for out for a night of celebration. It is breathtaking that the whims of a racist meant more to the staff than the safety and dignity of Black folks. They were asked about their race while trying to be seated, and told that the color of their skin precluded them from sitting where they wanted. We must act now.
Justin and Marcus took both families and kids to another restaurant. While driving, one of the kids asked if “they had done something wrong,” because he couldn’t understand why they were forced to leave. Hatred is not something any kid should ever have to make sense of, but in America, it is something that Black kids become aware of as soon as the world becomes aware of them.