Pictures of a hate message a customer scrawled on a receipt at a Columbus Mexican restaurant have been circulating on social media.
The receipt was left Sunday for a server at Cazuela’s, a Mexican cantina with a restaurant on East Broad Street on the Far East Side. The receipt had “zero” written on the tip line, along with “you suck.” Below that, it said, “I hope Trump deports you.”
Cazuela’s Grill acknowledged the incident on its social media saying, “...we believe in the power of respect, tolerance and acceptance. “We stand firmly against any form of hate or discrimination. Together, we will continue to create a welcoming place for everyone.”
Hate messages like the one left at Cazuela’s are on the rise across Ohio, said Kelly Fishman, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League Cleveland, which oversees all of Ohio.
“I think extremists have felt really emboldened,” Fishman said. “There's a lot of really divisive rhetoric happening, I would say across the political spectrum and in communities.”
She said messages or pamphlets are often left for others to find.
“These types of things are done in secret sometimes. If I leave a little message, it's harder to pin it back to me because you can't see me anymore, right?” Fishman said.
Immigrants are increasingly a target as they become part of political conversations, like the false accusations that immigrants in Springfield were eating people's pets. But they aren’t the only targets of hate, Fishman said.
“Unfortunately, we're really seeing the rising tide of hate across the board,” she said. "However, I also think we're seeing a lot of communities stand up and fight back."
Fishman encouraged people to report hate incidents to the ADL or local law enforcement, so that ADL and communities can get an accurate picture of what is happening. Sometimes that can lead to action, Fishman said. Recently, the ADL filed a lawsuit against the alleged neo-Nazi extremist group the Blood Tribe for reportedly harassing immigrants in Springfield.
Fishman said extremist groups use language to separate or “silo” different groups of people, which makes it harder for everyone to fight back.
“If we continue to silo communities, it makes it really difficult for everyone to fight back against what feels like a real rising tide of hate. And so, we have to be able to stand together.”
She said it’s important to support communities and businesses that have experienced hate incidents, and to have conversations so the larger community is aware of what’s happening.
