Restaurant Owners Defend 'White Appreciation Day' Despite Bomb Threats

The owners of Rubbin' Buttz BBQ, a barbecue restaurant in Milliken, Colo., are determined to celebrate "White Appreciation Day," even after the proposed promotion drew serious backlash. Last week, the hispanic owners of the restaurant made headlines after they announced that on June 11, all white people will receive a 10 percent discount. Unsurprisingly, notes the Huffington Post, the restaurant received "widespread criticism." Owner Edgar Antillon was criticized across social media platforms, and many expressed their outrage by filing fake reviews on the restaurant's Yelp page. Antillon says that he has even received bomb threats.

When he first announced "White Appreciation Day," Antillon argued, "We have a whole month for Black History Month... We have a whole month for Hispanic Heritage Month, so we thought the least we could do was offer one day to appreciate white Americans." He still is sticking to that logic. Antillon appeared on CNN (see video below) over the weekend to "argue that he's trying to celebrate all Americans, and honor the United States' history as a melting pot."

While he is celebrating a certain subset of the nation's population, Antillon tells the Huffington Post that he thinks that "celebrations based on racial or ethnic identity shouldn't exist at all." He believes that the need for Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month should be eliminated: "We're trying to move past that and realize we are all Americans."

Antillon claims that while he has received backlash online, the response by his customers "has been overwhelmingly positive." And, apparently it's not just the white customers that are supportive of the discount: "A lot of Hispanics are in favor of what we're doing."