A white restaurateur told a black customer not to wear an 'I can't breathe' shirt. Protests and a

[TexasTowelie]

A white restaurateur told a black customer not to wear an ‘I can’t breathe’ shirt. Protests and a boycott followed.


The closure of the local watering hole — maybe temporary, maybe not — started with a bright yellow T-shirt inscribed with three words: “I can’t breathe.”

Daryl Rollins bought the shirt in the wake of George Floyd’s killing in police custody in Minneapolis. Rollins, who is black, said he had never personally experienced discrimination until a recent Friday, when he wore the shirt while waiting in line at the Fish Market of Maryland in Clinton.

“You can’t wear that shirt in my establishment,” Rollins said owner Rick Giovannoni, who is white, told him, insisting he take the T-shirt off or turn it inside out.

The episode struck a nerve in Prince George’s County, a majority-black suburb of Washington where residents have long complained that they do not have the quality restaurants and retail establishments that thrive in neighboring jurisdictions.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/fish-market-maryland-i-cant-breathe/2020/07/09/c25b7c42-c062-11ea-9fdd-b7ac6b051dc8_story.html

[underpants]

1. He had every right to tell him he couldn't wear it

Public accommodation covers who you are not what you do. It’s his restaurant so if he thinks his customers won’t like it or he isn’t on board he has every right to tell him to leave.

[FBaggins]

4. Sure. But nobody is saying he violated 1st amendment rights

He has a right to, for instance, ban t-shirts with political messages on them...

... but he doesn’t have a right to your patronage. Protests/boycotts are not limited to legal infractions

[Ferrets are Cool]

8. And people have the right to boycott his racist ass.

[underpants]

10. That's true.

I was just making a point that he could do it.

[Ferrets are Cool]

11. +1

[Squinch]

2. Sad to say, the restaurant owner has the right to do that. Just as SANE business owners

have the right to demand people wear masks in their stores.

BUT, the community has the right to make sure Mr. Giovannoni loses all of his customers and goes out of business.

[underpants]

3. ✅

See above

[BComplex]

9. I don't have a subscription, so I could only read what you posted.

So I'm not sure what conspired later on.

By posts above, I can only assume the locals shut down his restaurant in a boycott.

[lambchopp59]

5. Racist overtones to this

Outweigh the "right to refuse service" in this case IMO.
Bearer of the message likely seeking civil discourse on the subject, got the equivalent treatment of "go drink from the jim crow fountain".
Especially in the highly charged environment about this these days?
Oh, hell no.
Let's reverse the scheme here. If I told a "Trump 2020" hat wearer to remove that in my establishment, I'm violating that person's first amendment rights, regardless how uncomfortable the person's obvious viewpoints made me feel. As long as the MAGAt remained within civil behavior during his business there.

[ret5hd]

6. The fist amendment prohibits the govt and only the govt from stifling speech.

[3Hotdogs]

7. No. Same as stated above. YOU cannot violate anyone's 1st Amendment rights.

The government can. A person can't.

A business may be a different matter. When Katzenbach won the civil rights case, it was based on the Interstate Commerece clause. Discrimmination causes less commerce. The government is 'posed to promote commerce.