Is something like this legal?
In Honor Of Barack Hussein Obama | Video of the sign, www.fl… | Flickr (SFW)
This thread on “locals only” discounts is tangentially related: Is "locals only" legal? - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board
FWIW, that would be a piece of cake to produce in Photoshop.
Might be a job for the Snopes team.
With ID? They give out ID cards to African Americans?
The letters don’t match. Look at the W in white.
And, come on, “typical white person”?
Very suspicious.
You may know this, but “typical” white person is probably a reference to when Obama called his grandmother a typical white woman just before mentioning her casual racism. Some people mocked that, riffing on the notion that Obamai intended to call typical white people racists.
You could try calling the number. Your best bet on an area code would be a Cleveland area code, since several of the other photos in that person’s photostream mention being in Cleveland. There’s also this one showing another business with a 440 area code, which apparently serves the greater Cleveland area.
ETA: There are also several other photos of the same sign from multiple angles. Still possible to Photoshop, but I doubt they would go to that much effort.
Yes, which weighs in favor of this sign either being faked or a deliberate attempt to mock Obama.
An internet search for Harry Sysack shows that he is in Cleveland and is well known for crazy, racially tinged signs. It would be trivial to call the guy and ask him about it. It’s irrelevant to the OP anyway.
The question isn’t if the sign is real. The question, and it’s an interesting one, is would such a discount be illegal? I await an expert to tell us but my guess is that it is illegal.
IF this is real (and I’m not 100% convinced yet), it looks awful.
Now, as a general rule, would it bother me if a bar offered a free drink to anyone who proclaimed himself Irish on St. Patrick’s Day? Nah.
Would it offend me if the Olive Garden offered a free appetitzer to self-proclaimed Italians on Columbus Day? Not really.
Stores can offer small gifts to Chinese patrons on Chinese New Year, or to Mexicans on Cinco de Mayo, for all I care.
Just so long as the gift in question is small, that it’s only once a year, and that it’s all in fun.
Or a phone call.
Spoke to someone there, it was intended as a joke, but it was an actual sign they posted.
Ladies’ nights have been held to be illegal in some jurisdictions: Law.com
A problem with this type of case in federal court is lack of state action: The Volokh Conspiracy - Ladies' Night and the 14th Amendment:
But the DOJ sued Cracker Barrel for customer discrimination in 2004: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/housing/documents/cracker_complaint.pdf (under a statute that wouldn’t apply to this case, if it were real)
Some states, like California, have broader discrimination laws: http://www.dfeh.ca.gov/about/filebin/UNRUHRALPH_Doc.pdf
I don’t see how it would be legal.
Here in Philly a few months ago, a few restaurants in China town were fined for having a Chinese menu with lower prices.