{"id":269,"date":"2010-03-10T20:52:55","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T20:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moemaka.org\/wp\/?p=269"},"modified":"2010-03-10T20:52:55","modified_gmt":"2010-03-10T20:52:55","slug":"article-published-mar-10-2010-sign-at-laundry-offers-chances-to-learn-frank-gary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moemaka.net\/eng\/2010\/03\/article-published-mar-10-2010-sign-at-laundry-offers-chances-to-learn-frank-gary\/","title":{"rendered":"Article published Mar 10, 2010 Sign at laundry offers chances to learn – Frank Gary"},"content":{"rendered":"

How long the sign hung there isn\u2019t clear, maybe a week, maybe a little more, and apparently no one said a word, possibly because some Burmese couldn\u2019t read it, and possibly because everyone else figured, “I\u2019m not Burmese, so why worry?” <\/p>\n

Not until Sunday, a few days after the sign was removed, did anyone publicly object to the sign, placing a picture of it on a Facebook page and calling for people to boycott Ricker\u2019s. <\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a gross violation of civil rights,” said Christine Marshall, a resident who heard about the sign at a meeting over the weekend.<\/p>\n

What caused an employee at Ricker\u2019s to put up the sign is not entirely clear. The Burmese Advocacy Center, just a few blocks away, knew about the sign and offered only some vague answers. <\/p>\n

The health department, which wanted to make sure people didn\u2019t think it had put up the sign, doesn\u2019t have a lot of details, either. Employees at the store referred all questions to corporate headquarters, which didn\u2019t want to discuss why someone put up the sign.<\/p>\n

Instead, the company issued a written apology on Facebook and posted a YouTube video by the head of the company, saying the company regrets the sign and apologizes to all it has offended. It also said the sign was put up by a local employee and company officials immediately ordered it taken down when they learned about it. <\/p>\n

The company said it is exploring appropriate discipline for the employee who put it up.<\/p>\n

This much we know. There were some hygiene issues involving Burmese customers at the laundromat, and part of the issue, Marshall said, might have been the Burmese tradition of chewing betel nuts and spitting out the juice. <\/p>\n

The practice is widespread and accepted throughout much of Asia. Some Burmese refugees who have recently come to the U.S. after spending years in refugee camps still chew betel nuts.<\/p>\n

The situation, people who are familiar with the Burmese community told us, was embarrassing for the Burmese. They were trying to keep the issue low-key. The head of the Burmese Advocacy Center would say only that if it has a chance to communicate with the people at Ricker\u2019s, both parties can be educated.<\/p>\n

So what we have here can be described two ways:<\/p>\n

\u2022It can be labeled an outrageous violation of civil rights, which is what it is. <\/p>\n

“The world knows it\u2019s not OK to put up a sign saying \u2018No Blacks\u2019 or \u2018No Mexicans,\u2019 ” said Marshall, who started the Facebook page that publicized the sign and demanded an apology from Ricker\u2019s. “But it\u2019s OK to put up this sign?”<\/p>\n

\u2022It can be looked at as an example of an employee who had what was considered a problem, and given a whole universe of solutions, chose possibly the worst one.<\/p>\n

But it also teaches us all something. <\/p>\n

Fort Wayne has opened its doors to refugees from all over the world, many from radically different cultures. There are going to be culture clashes. We deal with these clashes and work for solutions.<\/p>\n

Most of all, though, it teaches us that, as enlightened as we like to think we are, we are still quite capable of seeing things that we know are wrong and looking the other way, just the way people did for a week or so while the sign was posted at the laundromat.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\tFrank Gray<\/strong> has held positions as reporter and editor at The Journal Gazette since 1982 and has been writing a column on local topics since 1998. His column is published Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. He can be reached by phone at 461-8376, by fax at 461-8893, or e-mail at fgray@jg.net<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2010 The Journal Gazette. All rights reserved. News service copy is used with permission. The information contained in the report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Journal Gazette or granting news service.<\/p>\n

\n

Reposted From – Frank Gray, The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.- All the article’s content, photo and story is credited to\u00a0<\/font> Frank Gray, The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.<\/font><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 10, 2010 7:26 p.m. <\/div>\n

Sign at laundry offers chances to learn<\/h1>\n
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\u00a0Frank Gray<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Courtesy<\/em><\/div>\n
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An employee recently posted this sign on the door at Ricker\u201ds City Laundry.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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The sign on the door at Ricker\u2019s City Laundry at Calhoun Street and Rudisill Boulevard was blunt and shocking to some, at least to those who could read it.<\/p>\n

“For Sanitary Purposes, There Are No Burmese People Allowed.”<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-overseasburmese"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3RDLm-4l","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moemaka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moemaka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moemaka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moemaka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moemaka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moemaka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moemaka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moemaka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moemaka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}