O'Mei To Re-Open? Will Santa Cruz Patronize A White Supremacist Restaurateur?

O'Mei, a Chinese restaurant on Mission St. in Santa Cruz, California, closed in August after it was revealed that the owner, Roger Grigsby, had donated $500 to the U.S. Senate campaign of white supremacist David Duke of Louisiana.

Roger has been a right-wing gadfly in this liberal town since his UCSC days in the 80's, when he opposed anti-apartheid activists (who wanted University of California to divest from South Africa-related investments in order to bring about pressure to end the racist apartheid system) and misrepresented himself to a progressive professor as a current student in order to gather evidence to "frame" the professor as a biased "Marxist". He also, along the way, bicycled around Taiwan (and wrote a book about it), and founded O'Mei.

Since Roger has had Asian wives/girlfriends and has had friends/employees of color, he claims to not be a racist, but defended his contributions to David Duke and Trump, stating it is simply logical for a white person to support white supporters of white rights. Roger also thinks Jews are responsible for most of the world's woes.

Here's a summary of the events in August and September...

The restaurant has been closed for over a month, after dozens of negative reviews appeared on Yelp and the employees walked out.

This past week, there has been an "Open" sign on the restaurant, although no customers were spotted. There is also a FOR HIRE sign in the window, and their Yelp page proclaims they will re-open officially on November 28, 2017.

Perhaps Roger thinks people in Santa Cruz will have forgotten his white supremacist links in the past month, or that the new students coming to UCSC won't know about the controversy.

I call on all non-racists in Santa Cruz to permanently boycott O'Mei.

To support O'Mei is to support David Duke, Donald Trump, and white supremacism.

Santa Cruz stands united against racism, fear, and bigotry and in support of peace, love, diversity, and community.