No Publicity is Bad Publicity

I read about this restaurant in a London Daily Mail article on Friday morning and I recoginzed the place. I've eaten there a couple of times. BBQ was good but I don't recall the poster they are referring to in this article.

‘Let’s play cowboys and Iranians’: Poster showing hanging Iranian sparks outrage at Texas BBQ restaurant

By Lydia Warren 4th November 2011

A poster on the wall of a barbecue restaurant depicting a hanging Iranian has sparked outrage and accusations of racism.

The sepia picture in Nonmacher’s Bar-B-Q in Katy, Texas shows armed men surrounding the hanged man and includes the caption: ‘Let’s play cowboys and Iranians.’

One member of the lynch mob wears a shirt that reads: ‘Iranians Suck.’

But despite cries of racism and threats of a protest on Saturday, the owner of Nonmacher’s has refused to remove the poster.

John Nonmacher said: ‘This is still America. If they're not happy here, then they should go back to Iran.

‘It’s my choice to have it up. It’s your choice to go where you want to go. But I’m not going to take it down.’

Mr Nonmacher said the poster, which was taken in 1979 by photographer Mark McGarr, went on the wall when Americans were held hostage during the Iranian Revolution 30 years ago....

...The poster has garnered criticism from across the country after one customer took a picture and posted it on Facebook, creating the group ‘Nonmacher's BBQ racism towards Iranians’.

Ayman Wafai, a Houston energy engineer of Syrian heritage, spoke to the owner after his wife spotted the picture.

He said: ‘You know it’s 2011. Looking at it now, I see nothing really more than a display of racism and bigotry.’

He added: 'Imagine this is a picture of an African American, and this is a public restaurant, and they have a picture of a man being lynched ... an African American being lynched. How ridiculous is that?'

Now hundreds of users of the social networking site have vented their anger on the page and vow to stage a protest at the restaurant this Saturday.

Hundreds have also signed an online petition to remove the poster.

Thanks to the websites, Nonmacher's is receiving scores of phone calls each day.

‘This thing has spread like wildfire and we are getting phone calls from New York and everywhere else,’ Mr Nonmacher told KHOU-Channel 11.

‘This is just a smear campaign. All they want is to get the sign down.’

When asked by local reporters about an entire ethnicity being singled out in the poster, Mr Nonmacher replied: ‘I don't find it that way. I don't find that discriminatory.'

Michael Berry, a local talk show host covered the issue on Friday and said he would have lunch at the place on Saturday. I was in Katy on Saturday morning for a little leaque game and decided to pass by. Now I've passed by here countless times and I know the area. The restaurant is in a small strip center with a barber shop and other small business in it. Well if these people wanted to put pressure on Mr Nonmacher I think they failed.

The BBQ place at 1130 this morning.  I have never seen a crowd like this

I don't know if I will go later this week for lunch but I have to say I'm supporting Mr Nonmacher in this. It is (for the moment in spite of the efforts of Obama) a free country. If he wants to put this up in his restaurant that's his business. If you don't like it, don't go there. And I wonder if any of the usual suspects on Facebook who scream about racism on this man's part will say much about the Anti-Semitism of the Occupy people in New York, LA, etc?

Again, to the moron who thought you would have this man over a barrell you kinda misjudged it. Mr Nonmacher is being scared all the way to the bank.