Local bar special sparks debate

Imagine your favorite local bar nicknamed its daily special after a racial slur.

Would you… Imagine your favorite local bar nicknamed its daily special after a racial slur.

Would you boycott it?

Some students are doing just that.

The Garage Door Saloon at the corner of Atwood and Sennott streets in Central Oakland has several signs advertising beer specials outside its door.

One reads: “Wetback Wednesdays, 5 Coronitas $7 9-11. 75 cent tacos all day.”

Molly Ferguson, a recent graduate, saw it yesterday and went in to complain.

“That’s very insulting,” she said. “I pointed out what sign it was to the guy [inside], and I said ‘I think that’s really offensive, and I think you should take it down.’

“I don’t understand how someone can get away with it.”

She told her friend, senior Amelia Marritz, who made a Facebook group: “Boycott Garage Door and Its ‘Wetback Wednesdays'” and also complained to the bartender.

“It’s the equivalent of saying the n-word night with fried chicken,” she said.

The Facebook group, which was created late yesterday afternoon, already had 14 members at the time of publication.

Under Marritz’s name on the website, it reads: “loves tacos, hates racism.”

Mark, the manager of the Garage Door who said he wouldn’t use his last name, said it’s meant to be a joke.

“It’s an ad meant to be eye-catching, and obviously it is,” he said.

He compared it to an Irish or Polish joke and said it all depends on how someone takes it.

“If you’re offended by it, you probably shouldn’t come in because you’ll be offended by a lot more,” he said.

“People call up about a sign, but they don’t call in about people getting robbed all the time in South Oakland. People are worried about the wrong things.”

He added Corona is brewed in Mexico, and they didn’t have any problems making the sign.

Mark added that business on Wednesdays has been great.

Brad Paulik, a former Pitt student and frequenter of the Garage Door, said he thinks the word in question could be considered a racial slur, but people should have thicker skins.

“I don’t think it’s a big deal,” he said. “It’s not saying ‘don’t come here if you’re Mexican.’

“It’s a bar. People crack jokes all the time.”