{"id":5023,"date":"2024-02-01T23:22:14","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T23:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/?p=5023"},"modified":"2024-02-01T23:22:14","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T23:22:14","slug":"owner-takes-down-offensive-flag-inside-restaurant-amid-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/?p=5023","title":{"rendered":"Owner Takes Down \u2018Offensive\u2019 Flag Inside Restaurant Amid Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Susan DeRose, owner of Buckhead\u2019s OK Caf\u00e9, decided to remove a banner and flag that were hanging at the restaurant.<\/p>\n

Witnesses clapped when the Georgia flag was taken down on Friday. The banner and flag have been called \u201coffensive\u201d over the years, but they have remained in the restaurant for over 30 years.<\/p>\n

When asked why she decided to finally remove the flag, DeRose responded: \u201cI thought, \u2018Well, I\u2019m just going to take it down. We\u2019re going to auction it off because I understand it offends people.\u2019 So I\u2019m going to take it down and we\u2019re going to give the money to the police force.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isabel Johnson, a student at Georgia Tech and leader of Buckhead for Black Lives, stated that she was happy to see the flag removed.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI\u2019m glad that it\u2019s a good gesture in the right direction. I\u2019m glad to see that steps are being taken to kind of reform the restaurant and to make it a little bit more friendly for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson and others saw a sign and tea party stand in front of the restaurant as they marched through Buckhead on Sunday. The sign, which read: \u201cLives that matter are made with positive purpose,\u201d was later taken down.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

For decades, the flag has been the center of controversy.<\/p>\n

Farmer asked DeRose why she was finally taking it down, and she responded: \u201cI have it up because it means a lot to me. It means a lot to me about what happened in 1964 when women got the civil rights. I realize a lot of people don\u2019t agree with that and some people have been calling saying they\u2019re going to burn us down. I thought, \u2018Well, I\u2019m just going to take it down.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Former state Sen. Vincent Fort maintained that he was not satisfied with the move: \u201cThis has been a calculated attempt to insult black people, not just black people, but their allies, because there are a lot of white folks that have seen this and say, \u2018Hold it.\u2019 These guys have been so calculated, so offensive for so long that I\u2019m not willing to give them a break.\u201d
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Speaking about DeRose\u2019s plan to auction the flag, Fort stated: \u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to get them to do the right thing and I\u2019m not convinced that taking down the symbol and giving the money to the police is the right thing (or) the only thing that they should be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson stated that removing the flag was a step in the right direction. \u201cI think it\u2019s a good first gesture but I think a lot more needs to be done in reforming how people are treated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Susan DeRose, owner of Buckhead\u2019s OK Caf\u00e9, decided to remove a banner and flag that were hanging at the restaurant. Witnesses clapped when the Georgia flag was… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5027,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023\/revisions\/5027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}