One of the best Christmas presents ever: Rocky Rococo has removed their sign that said, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.” Must have been removed within the last year or two, it was up for over twenty years. This is proof that some people and businesses here take our local brand of racism seriously.You may or may not know that the signs are based on the “Pass Laws”, originating in the deep south and meant to keep African Americans out of or away from certain places. These signs began to show up when the “No Colored Allowed” signs became illegal, along with the ability to refuse service because of race. So, the new code phrase became, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.”

What the literal translation of such a sign results in is the understanding that the owner/management of the business where this sign is displayed, can decide that they don’t like people with blue eyes, and so can refuse to serve them. This would never be you of course, but that other person over there.

I have had managers defend these signs on the basis of being able to refuse to serve someone who is causing a disturbance of some sort. In such a case, no sign is needed as there are already laws about creating public disturbances; a quick call to the police will have the disturber(s) moved along. Anyway, if that was what was really meant, shouldn’t the sign read, “Anyone causing a disturbance will result in our calling the police.” Seriously, who would actually put their hands on another person to remove them from their establishment?

It is well past time to have all such signs removed from businesses in the Spokane area. If we aren’t really racist, it is time for our entire community to stop acting like we are.