Just before the Labor Day holiday the internets exploded, OK, just a little, after all it was just the Arizona Daily Star’s Facebook page. Reaction to a post on the child who was missing after an Aug. 27 carjacking, turned interesting when local restaurant owner John Foster of May’s Counter made that mistake many out there have done before—shared their opinion. Gulp.
When we contacted Foster, since folks on the thread were talking a May’s boycott, he responded that he learned a lesson on sharing his opinion on social media.
His opinion/reaction to the carjacking:
When we contacted Foster, we explained that Tucson Weekly readers emailed us screen shots of the thread conversation. We wondered if he understood where they were coming from and if he was worried about May’s, because many of us love his chicken and waffles and the grits and the po boy and …
His response:
Got it. I am learning quickly about how important it is to think through a comment in any communication especially on social media. I certainly see how my comments could be taken the wrong way. Any assertion that I am or that my comments were racially motivated is completely false. My comments were based in emotion and were directed at the overwhelming amount of crime that stems from being a border town. I am from Tucson, born and raised here. I am from the west side by way of Tully Elementary, raised in El Rio Park, went to Tucson High and Sunnyside. I have had the benefit of growing up in the Mexican-American community. I was the minority most my life and was shown nothing but love. I am raising my children here with a beautiful Mexican American woman I might add, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am not a racist ma’am. A concerned father and citizen who did not consider the implications of his choice of words spoken in a public forum? Yes for sure. In regards to Mays, I would like to believe Mays is one of the most racially diverse restaurants is Tucson. That was the intention when I crossed stereotypical racial lines to bring chicken and waffles to the city.
So, this has been a teachable moment for me and one that I won’t soon forget. I think the greatest thing I learned from this was to not paint things in such broad strokes and to be more compassionate for others. Lesson learned.
This article appears in Aug 28 – Sep 3, 2014.
Um, what? “My comments were based in emotion and were directed at the overwhelming amount of crime that stems from being a border town.” Between uncorroborated assertions like that, his rush to point out that his best friend is a “beautiful Mexican American woman,” and his self-consciousness about “the stereotypical racial lines” (and all this time I just thought they were Southern cultural lines) of chicken and waffles, sort of point the way toward room for even further improvement in his grasp of repercussions attached to public outbursts. On the other hand, I actually prefer that people be very open in expressing such things in order to give us the option of boycotting them. Pity. I really loved their steak salad.
Good, with less people going there, it sound like the perfect time to develop a yen for chicken and waffles.
Should people boycott a place because someone voiced an unlearned or not well thought out opinion in public?
If so, I may have to boycott all of my neighbor’s houses.
Looks like a trip to May’s Counter will be in order for my family this weekend. I will gladly support this business owner and his right to free speech. I didn’t serve 21 years in the military so folks like him can be silenced. This just shows how pro-illegal immigrant this city is. Any mentions of illegal immigration and you’re deemed a racist. Whatever. I’ll spend money in his establishment and will rally some of my fellow Vets who enjoy Mays Counter to do the same.
Nobody is silencing him! I believe we should strongly encourage everyone to express their views unreservedly so consumers can make informed choices in a free marketplace.
“How could you live in Tucson and not realize your city is criminally under siege by Mexicans?”
“Protect yourself and your children from immigrant terrorist that own your streets.”
“Shoot first ask questions later.”
Oh, and this gem: “I am raising my children here with a beautiful Mexican American woman I might add, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am not a racist ma’am.”
Yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever be going back to May’s Counter.
Like, ever.
White people finance the drug problems in Mexico. If you want to place blame for the cartels and the killings and the fact that working immigrants can’t come here without being part of the drug trade or they get killed, blame the white people who snort, smoke, and inject the vast majority of the drugs that cross that border.
(I say legalize it and take away the black markets and the criminality, but until then I say: own your shit, white people.)
Chicken & Waffles are not “southern cuisine,” so there is another example of taking your own views and having them fit into what you want to see.
The entire international border is considered a war-zone, and “Constitution-Free-Zone” by our Government. There is nothing racist in saying that the cartels, the Sinaloa in particular, are terrorists, they are. Don’t any of you recall the thousands of children stranded at our border recently? That was a direct result of cartel-violence.
He did not express himself well, but neither do most people, especially on social media.
Perhaps look again at your own values and wonder why your need for “tolerance” makes you intolerant.
We have it pretty well in this country if this is what we find to be outrageous, the opinions of a restaurant owner, maybe you should all vote more instead of using your outrage in such pointless and ineffectual ways.
“The white people.” Bravo. well done. Way to fight racism with racism. Yes the American government and the War on Drugs is responsible for the cartels. You saying all white-people are the drug addicts paying for it is the same as saying ALL immigrants are members in the cartels.
Ignorance of a topic is no excuse for self-righteous indignation.
It’s not a very good restaurant and over-priced with poor service. These are valid reasons to dislike a place. If John Foster runs for some kind of office, again another method of showing your opinions. But yelling fire in a crowded theater hurts our community.
Save your outrage for worthwhile causes. Not the uninformed emotional opinion of a guy who qualified for a bank-loan to open a shitty restaurant.
Meanwhile Citizen’s United is being argued…what a mindless herd of moronic sheep.
I just want to eat awesome chicken and waffles and not make everything a political statement. You may still have anger towards a man who clearly apologized, but there are other people who work at Mays who are trying to pay their bills so why punish them? I don’t necessarily agree with John but I can see where he was coming from and the mindset he was in when he posted that stuff and I forgive him like decent humans do. One problem with Tucson and probably the whole country is that we preach supporting local businesses but are so quick to try and destroy them over any little controversy, especially social media bs
He didn’t say “all” white people, Josh. He said white people consume the majority of drugs that cross the border, thereby providing the majority of the billions of dollars that the cartels use to foment violence in the world, and that’s a well documented fact.
Another well documented fact is that a totally disproportionate ratio of people who get busted in this country for that drug trade are brown and black, not white. That is the society we live in–one in which racism is still deeply ingrained and institutionalized in our law enforcement/criminal justice system.
Another well documented fact is that the vast majority of violence fueled by those white people and their billions of dollars spent supporting the “terrorists” occurs in Mexico and other Latin American nations, not here. Living in Tucson and complaining about drug violence is akin to living in Mayberry RFD and complaining about traffic jams. It is just another indication of the profound ignorance that abounds in this country when it comes to geopolitics, and racially charged issues like illegal immigration and the illegal drug trade in particular.
Given these realities (whether you’re ignorant of them or choose to deny them or not), then yes, one should choose one’s words wisely in such a context.
The other great point here, is that now the customers will be all of the extreme right wing racists who love to find shitty places to bring their guns and hate, while all of the sweet and understanding liberals will avoid it, thus perpetuating any hate that may or may not have surrounded this guy, who is giving back to the community.
Nothing like an intolerant Liberal to give an intolerant Conservative a bigger platform. Maybe instead of hating hate, try changing it’s mind.
And did he site his facts? No. You have no information to say that one ethnicity consumes more than any other. The issue is not race it is socio-economics.
I wasn’t complaining about the violence. I am very well-versed in the politics of my area. I am a child-social-worker, as is my wife. My friend Chuck Bowden who just passed, wrote many fantastic books about the border/cartel violence, I recommend informing yourself. And not defending other’s uninformed opinions.
My point was, a lame and poor composed an opinion as it was, it is NOT racist.
Using generalities like “most” and “all,” are.
You are all over the place “skinnyman” (another bullshit tactic, hiding).
If we want to have a conversation on the origins and faculty of the War on Drugs I’m prepared to do so. With actual facts and statistics. Not what I think and feel based on mass media.
And by the way each controlled substance has it’s own demographics. So saying that White people use more of all drugs is ignorant. Now the justice system is a different conversation, having nothing to do with this. Prosecution of crime is not pertinent here. I have studied this shit all of my life. My father sits in jail for 22 years on a drug conviction, my brother also (less time sentenced).
Again I say though, do something in the community to fight hate and intolerance, yelling at one person for an ill-conceived opinion is pointless. He is a father and a child was abducted, he was emotional. Fuck. It’s better to lash out at a person’s reaction with hate, that’s just fine. Liberal phonyism.
John read an article that got him emotionally wound and he commented with those emotions rather than waiting to calm down. I think each and every person who has commented on or read this article has been guilty of doing so at some point in their life. Social media just made it go boom rather than let it fade away.
Get over it folks, there are far better issues available to rant about than this.
At the end of the day I know one thing…. I enjoy the food at May’s Counter and have introduced it to countless others since they opened. I personally have never had bad service there and have always left full and satisfied with the value. I will continue to eat there and take friends who haven’t had the experience yet with me.
One thing I never saw/heard/read when I lived in Boston was outrage at the tens of thousands of illegal Irish immigrants who lived in the area. There’s no task force, no profiling or pullovers, and I sure as hell never saw any homeland security officials. Rich white girls would stumble into my bar every night to take pictures with “real Irish people” and talk their ear off about their Irish grandmother or whatever. If you think the immigration discussion isn’t permeated with racism, go somewhere where the illegal immigrants are all white like the Irish and Polish and see for yourself how little anyone cares.
I like May’s Counter. That comment does not offend me and I’m Mexican american. In fact, the way Mexicans behave when coming to this country is very embarrassing and the way they treat their own country is horrible. How dare people get offended by those who want to protect this country from people who don’t even care about their own country. I agree some people are ignorant and are clearly racist, but many are just fed up and use a poor choice in words that are sometimes misinterpreted that others use to fuel the fire. I will continue to support this establishment.
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/quicktables/qui…
Here are some datasets from 2011. You can play around with different drugs, gender, race and more to see who is using legal and illegal drugs. Whites are almost twice as likely to have used cocaine, and when you see how many more white people there are, a little math might lead someone versed in mathematical arts to conclude that white people either get a lot of free blow or that they contribute more money to that segment of the black market.
I have no problem with this gentleman expressing has right to free speech what I do have a problem with is the fact that he deems it necessary to lump crime into race, nationality, for color. In my opinion buying more guns does not solve crime otherwise this would be the safest country in the world which statistically proven it is not. This gentleman sounds like a moniker for Fox News the governor and are most of our legislature.
If he is a veteran then he will realize that if he served in Afghanistan or Iraq where most people are armed, the streets are out of control, one more reason not to hand ak-47s out of every single Arizonan.
If I don’t buy products from someone because I am afraid that he will shoot me and ask questions later, does that mean that I am un-American because I am opposing free speech?
I read his comment right after it was posted and I thought it was sarcasm. I really didn’t think anyone could be that ignorant.
Is what he’s saying false? Do we not suffer the effects of being a border town? Maybe I’m missing something? Or I don’t over analyze? Either way, the man’s entitled to his opinion, and people are entitled to not eat at his restaurant. Chik-fil-a owner voiced his opinion, that also had mixed reviews. But I’m pretty positive that while many boycotted Chik-fil-A, there were JUST as many who are going more often. So, I think May’s will be fine. But I think the owner realizes now, be careful what you say, it can be taken out of context in the blink of an eye. I’d stay neutral neutral. As a business owner providing a service to a wide range of nationalities, it would be better for business.
One of these commenters says she’s going to write negative reviews of the place. Well, now isn’t that high-minded! That’ll help! Only a total idiot in an irrational hissyfit with an inflated sense of self-importance writes a review on a site like Yelp, Urbanspoon, etc. in order to have a platform for a rant solely about something they don’t like about the owner of the restaurant and nothing about the fare served there or the service. That crazy scumbag couple in Scottsdale that turned up on Gordon Ramsay’s show was truly and viciously insane and worthy of utter destitution, but I have just as low an opinion of the people who went straight to Yelp to write their little screeds after seeing the show, without having been to the restaurant. It’s weak and not to be taken seriously. And how many of the people who are in the biggest lather about this Foster guy and who are saying they’ll never go back to his restaurant have actually been to it in the first place? A few doubtless have, but my guess is that the proportion is extremely small. But what the hell, it feels good to make a big public display of one’s perceived moral superiority!
The guy has done plenty to alienate an enormous segment of the population, actually several segments of the population, but people’s heavy-handed and theatrical self-righteousness in their reactions is damn near as nauseating. Do people realize just how many diners of this sort are owned by very, very, very conservative people? Would people still boycott if they only knew his views but he hadn’t made them public? What was his crime? Merely having a different opinion than someone else, or making it public and visible through the unwise pairing of politics and the social media site of his business?
Now, on to my own foaming-at-the-mouth rant about the owner, unserious though may be in reality. I’ve never been to the place and never knew it even existed until now, and I don’t care either way about it, but I’m damn near calling for a boycott of the joint based solely on his depressing written use of the singular noun “terrorist” when it should be “terrorists” in the plural!!! To use a word Mr. Foster might not approve of, “¡¡¡Guácala!!!” Not to pick on Mr. Foster alone; far too many people omit the clearly required plural -s, and it’s a dismal sign of how little people know about their own goddamn language, even those who worry about the culture being under siege and who quite likely complain about how foreigners speak English. Do I even have to say it? I shouldn’t, but I gladly will: with rare exception, plural words end in -s. How the hell do these people not know this when they’re churning out desperate, bottom 20th percentile prose like “these terrorist”, “all of these post”, “the president and his cronies are all a bunch of communist”, etc.???? Sweet Jesus, and we talk about “American Exceptionalism.”
Harumph.
Joe Reaves makes an excellent point about other kinds of illegal immigrants. There are millions of non-Mexican illegal immigrants in the US, and aside from the current fussing over Central American kids, no one really raises any kind of hue and cry over these other people, who often times really are the ones competing with middle-class Americans for jobs, unlike the vast majority of Mexican laborers!
To take the example of the Irish in Boston, how many sweet bartending gigs have gone to fun, good-looking Irish people who’ve overstayed their tourist or student visas? It makes the place look cool to have an Irish bartender. No idea why, but people like that. Same with the affable and fun-loving Brazilians. In many northeastern cities huge sub-sectors of the home improvement industry have been dominated by Brazilians for quite a few years now. The owners are generally legal resident aliens (or even citizens by now) but they often hire their less-than-legal countrymen for construction jobs, flooring jobs, roofing jobs, and the like. These ain’t low-wage peach picking jobs, they pay fairly well. Don’t Americans want to do that work anymore? It hardly matters, because I hear little to no griping about them. And when we stop to consider the Brazilians, if there were ever a group that had the potential to raise the ire of American males to the point of wanting to deport them en masse, it’s them. Wherever I’ve gone, when there are Brazilian dudes in the group, American girls are practically grinding on them right there at the restaurant/bar/party/park/post office/you name it. Maybe the Americans have started using them as their lures and wingmen? 🙂
Haha ew! A guy above said white people fund the drugs pretty much! So wrong. Ur racists too. Smh. Not ONE “type” of person does drugs.
My question is where is Ryan Fields And Jared Fields The other owners when this idiot is talking shit. if he hasn’t noticed half of the employees in his restraunt are Mexican. Mays isn’t theyr’e only restaunt the one in Flagstaff and in Gilbert, those are employeed with mexicans too. Where are Jared and Ryan Fields ? Haven’t they got anything to say ?
Well, I never understood the appeal of chicken and waffles. I’m from a southern family and it’s news to me that this is a “southern” dish. In any case, I make it a point to not support businesses that are racist. I don’t care who he has babies with, to decide the worst criminal activity in Tucson is generated by Mexican citizens, is ignorant and racist. Nope not going to this restaurant. Besides with his attitude, he probably has an AK-47 next to the cash register.
Michael Petinto OH MY GOD you have saved the world with your comment. you obviously have you brain connected to your asshole just like John Foster. Lol did you catch that sarcasm?
I have eaten there several times so I can post a review on the bad food, especially the chicken fried steak, BUT I have the right to comment as well on his insensitive, racist, rude comment. The original thread said NOTHING about a Mexican being responsible carjacking/kidnapping but he assumed it was. I hope your child never goes missing and the first comment you read is nothing but some ignorant hurtful comment! Go head go eat at Mays hopefully your not the wrong race because remember “shoot first ask questions later”
Chicken and Waffles is considered Soul Food…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_and_w…
If you are in the public eye, you’re not allowed to have an opinion.
I really don’t see how his comment was that racist. There is some element of truth in it. Mexican gangs have a strong presence in Tucson.
Maybe I’m just desensitized because I had a group of Saudis hate on me constantly through 3 years of high school in England. Maybe it is that I know genuine racism and can tell the difference between that and some stupid knee-jerk reaction based on America’s ridiculous notions of political correctness!
I just don’t see this as a racist comment!
I think the major problem with this article is the fact that readers are left with the idea that John Foster is a part of May’s Counter; he’s not. He has had nothing to do with business at May’s Counter for quite some time now. The owners and employees of May’s counter are welcoming and fun loving people. Our staff is full of diverse, hardworking employees who have made May’s Counter the restaurant you have all grown to love. It would be a mistake and a disservice to all who actually represent May’s if even one person was to let Foster’s opinion keep them from eating May’s delicious chicken and waffles. John Foster’s name should not be associated at all with May’s Counter and the fact that, even in this situation, he does not state that he doesn’t own any of May’s Counter anymore, is ridiculous.
There are two types of racism. That borne of ignorance, and that borne of malice. Think of the former as the first stage of the disease. It’s eminently curable, provide one is willing to learn, and do a little soul-searching. I suggest this course of action for Mr. Foster. Because once it reaches the second stage, there is rarely any hope for the afflicted.
Maeve Robertson, to the best of my knowledge, chicken and waffles is a dish invented in New York. From what I understand someone opened a place in Harlem and sold that, and it was a success. It isn’t southern food, but it’s “soul food” insofar as “soul food” is food developed within the black community in some part of the country.
It is so very sad that people who have knee-jerk reactions to posts on the internet don’t calm down a little before commenting on them. Think before putting foot in mouth…. Verbal terrorism SUCKS