Restaurant to Hold 'White Appreciation Day' and Offer White People a Discount

To file under horrible ideas: A barbecue restaurant in Milliken, Colo. plans to host a "White Appreciation Day." According to local station WNDU, all white people will received a 10 percent discount on June 11. Owners Edgar Antillon and Miguel Jimenez — both of whom are Hispanic — tell KUSA 9News that the day started "as a joke," but is now a serious event on the calendar.

He hopes it will "bring people together."

Antillon argues: "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." However, those months were created to raise awareness for under-represented subsets of the population. During those months, no one receives discounts or special treatment due to the color of their skin or their heritage. If anything, restaurants have come under fire for offering controversial Black History Month menus.

Antillon claims that the "discount isn't meant to discriminate." Instead he hopes it will "bring people together." He wants to "prompt others to think differently about race." Antillon adds that he would consider giving a discount to other races, but that most likely will not happen.

News of the discount has already resulted in a lot of backlash. Activist Ricardo Romero tells KUSA 9News that the discount is wrong, adding, "If you're going to give a discount, give it to the whole community." There also may be legal issues with the discount. A representative from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies notes that if someone felt discriminated against by the move, they could file a complaint that would be investigated by the department.