Comments on: Aaron Blanco “Smiles”, Rescinds Apology

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:25:34 +0000

I don’t like the Cubs either, but I do think Cubs fans should be allowed to marry one another, gay or straight.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:22:17 +0000

That sounds an awful lot like, “I’m not racist, I just don’t think white and black people should be allowed to marry.”

By: Mark Derby

Mark Derby — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 16:10:22 +0000

Most know only the first few words of the familiar Emerson quote. Take the time to read all of it:

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — ‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

#YesEqual!!

By: Jeepers

Jeepers — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 02:14:20 +0000

May I just say that I hate how easy it is to thumbdown and make comments disappear here? Most of the hidden comments aren’t even “that bad.”

This Aaron Blanco guy just sounds like a douchebag, even if you forget about the homophobic part. And that’s enough for me. There are way too many great coffee shops to give your business to instead of to some jerkface.

By: ryan gonzales johnson

ryan gonzales johnson — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:41:26 +0000

c’mon… homophobes, heterosexism and heteronormativity should be smashed… there’s no problem with that. There’s no higher road to take against inequality.

By: Sam Tisdale

Sam Tisdale — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:41:03 +0000

I’ve been hooked on this story since it broke, since there’s nothing I love more than watching people do stupid, self-destructive things as Mr. Blanco has done here. (You’ll notice that nowhere in this post will I claim to be a nice guy).

In any case, as of a few hours ago, enough people had flooded Yelp voicing their concerns with Mr. Blanco’s tweet to bring his overall rating down to 2.5 stars. Many of the posts were in the vein of “I am saddened since I can no longer support what was once my favorite coffee shop.”

However, as of a few MINUTES ago, all of these posts have been cleared by Yelp’s moderators. I think that it’s probably safe to assume that this is because of a complaint made by Mr. Blanco?

If so, it’s interesting that he stands adamantly behind free speech when it comes to himself, but feels the need to silence others who have made their opposing views known in a PUBLIC FORUM. Hypocrisy is fun!

By: Joe Marrocco

Joe Marrocco — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 18:59:22 +0000

I like gay people.
I like straight people.
I like coffee people.
I like tea people.
I like people.
But I don’t like the Cubs. GO CARDS!
~ Here’s to dumbing down threads. I just find all of this painful. some random fringe dude who is on the fence about who to please has an iPhone and tweets before he thinks. DISREGARD.

So what’s going on in the coffee world today?

By: Jason Dominy

Jason Dominy — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 18:24:08 +0000

i like the Cubs.
i like gay people.
i like straight people.
i still like the Cubs.

By: Mb

Mb — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 15:31:04 +0000

I know we are a minor of minorities, but does he need to slam homosexual cubs fans too? I’ll be working on my paper hat this weekend #YesEqual

By: Brian G

Brian G — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 05:44:41 +0000

When you think of someone who is prejudiced, often you’ll think of someone spitting out vehement slurs. There are many more subtle ways to be prejudiced, however. Someone can be a nice person and be very kind and very obliging to their friends and customers, but if they approve of state-sanctioned heterosexual marriage that comes with a bunch of benefits and rights, and meanwhile disapprove of state-sanctioned homosexual marriage because gays are “not equal” (or that gay marriage is “just not the same”), I don’t care how kind they act, but they’re either really ignorant of their own privilege and bias and are acting like a jerk out of tradition and because people around them who they love and trust are doing it, or they’re just a knowing jerk. Either way, they’re thinking from a place of prejudice.

I know it’s downright impossible to withdraw completely from ingrained prejudices of people who are different from you. I find it painful and shameful to confront my own prejudices. But the gracious thing to do in this case is to acknowledge when you’ve treated minorities like lesser persons and to learn from your missteps. By deleting his apology and acting smug that he can now laugh all the way to the bank, he’s shown what he thinks of sexual minorities, which is that they’re fodder to speak ill of in order to draw in the smiles (and dollarsigns) of a likewise prejudiced clientele… and that the apology was only an expedient way to stop people from calling him out, before his true feelings came out, that gays really do deserve to have their equal rights withheld.

And yeah, it’s in his legal rights to express his views, but for those who recognize that Blanco is following in a tradition of marginalizing queer people (whether consciously or not), it is quite fair and proper to be disgusted.