AMart
Diamond Member
- Dec 29, 2020
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Tribalism alive and well.
When Davina Dickens first placed a cardboard âBlack-ownedâ sign in the window of her Oakland restaurant, Graffiti Pizza, she didnât think that roughly a year later she would have to stand next to it and try to convince people that she is Black.
But this was the situation she found herself in on May 8, when Dickens said a Black father and son came to her pizzeriaâs door. The father asked to speak with the owner after noticing the sign, which Dickens put up to show solidarity with the anti-racism protests that swept the country after George Floydâs murder last summer.
âWhen I told him it was me, he told me he didnât think I was Black,â Dickens recalled. âI told him I was. In fact, I even pulled my mask down. I said to him, âMy father looks just like youâ... They started laughing and walking away.â
Unfortunately for some multiracial Black people, having their Blackness dismissed is a familiar experience..............................
Graffiti received so many one-star Yelp reviews within 24 hours that Yelp placed an âUnusual Activity Alertâ on the restaurantâs profile. The company does this when a business gets an influx of negative comments not related to customer experience. The toxic reviews fixated on the pizzeriaâs disputed ownership.
When Davina Dickens first placed a cardboard âBlack-ownedâ sign in the window of her Oakland restaurant, Graffiti Pizza, she didnât think that roughly a year later she would have to stand next to it and try to convince people that she is Black.
But this was the situation she found herself in on May 8, when Dickens said a Black father and son came to her pizzeriaâs door. The father asked to speak with the owner after noticing the sign, which Dickens put up to show solidarity with the anti-racism protests that swept the country after George Floydâs murder last summer.
âWhen I told him it was me, he told me he didnât think I was Black,â Dickens recalled. âI told him I was. In fact, I even pulled my mask down. I said to him, âMy father looks just like youâ... They started laughing and walking away.â
Unfortunately for some multiracial Black people, having their Blackness dismissed is a familiar experience..............................
Graffiti received so many one-star Yelp reviews within 24 hours that Yelp placed an âUnusual Activity Alertâ on the restaurantâs profile. The company does this when a business gets an influx of negative comments not related to customer experience. The toxic reviews fixated on the pizzeriaâs disputed ownership.
Online critics claimed an Oakland pizzeria wasnât Black-owned. They were wrong
Graffiti Pizza owner Davina Dickens put up a âBlack-ownedâ sign during anti-racist...
www.sfchronicle.com