Burrito chain being harassed by liberals because it has ‘Illegal’ in its name

by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton | October 24, 2014 12:53 pm

Oh, for Illegal Pete’s sake! This is taking political correctness to the extreme and is just plain stupid. In the Rocky Mountain High state – shocker. People have a Constitutional right to name their business whatever they please. If you don’t like it or their food, go somewhere else. Get over it. Liberals need to get a life and stop the Word Police raids. Targeting a popular burrito chain because they have the word ‘Illegal’ in their name numbs my brain and makes me hungry – wonder if they have a chain here, because I’d eat there just because of this crap[1].

From The Federalist Papers[2]:

Three weeks shy of opening his newest Illegal Pete’s in Old Town Fort Collins, restaurant owner Pete Turner came to Fort Collins on Wednesday to listen to a crowd of concerned residents who asked that he change his business’ name.

The Boulder-based restaurant with six locations in Boulder and Denver is modeled after Mexican food from San Francisco’s Mission District, specifically over-sized burritos. The name Illegal Pete’s, Turner said, is a literary reference to a bar in a novel he read as an English major in Boulder. “Pete” also refers to his own name and his father’s.

When he started the restaurant in 1995, Turner hoped the name would be ambiguous enough to spark people’s interest, perhaps referring to counterculture activity.

But on Wednesday, 30 or so community members explained the negative context of the word illegal, or the “I-word,” as some referred to it, and its importance, down to its use as the name of a restaurant.

“Since I know the context, and I have been labeled with (the word illegal), it makes a huge difference to me,” said Lucy Gonzalez, 25.

As part of a wider effort to “drop the I-word,” Gonzalez and others believe that any use of the word “illegal” connected to people should be stopped.

“Social context is hugely important,” Fort Collins immigration attorney and meeting moderator Kim Medina said. “We’ll never get to big issues, such as immigration reform, until we can solve these smaller issues of language.”

Starting and ending with Medina’s urge to Turner to drop “illegal” from Illegal Pete’s, the audience discussion ranged from emotional past experiences with racial slurs to accusatory remarks toward Turner: “In a room full of people of color, this is probably a little uncomfortable for you,” one woman said.

Others likened the name to a racial slur directed at African-Americans, hanging a Confederate flag in the restaurant’s window or calling a restaurant “Smoking Lynching BBQ.”

I am sick to death of all this control crap in the name of racism, gender, Progressivism… what have you. Enough already. You don’t have a God-given right to be offended. Don’t you get it? If you keep stripping the rights away from those you disagree with, pretty soon there are no rights left. You wake up one day under a totalitarian regime and wonder what happened, except it was you that happened.

Endnotes:
  1. wonder if they have a chain here, because I’d eat there just because of this crap: http://www.youngcons.com/burrito-chain-being-targeted-by-liberals-because-it-has-this-word-in-its-name/#QUmcS0dcxqvWHqcA.99
  2. The Federalist Papers: http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/us/unbelievable-burrito-chain-being-targeted-because-its-name-has-a-racist-word-in-it

Source URL: https://rightwingnews.com/democrats/burrito-chain-harassed-liberals-illegal-name/