We can’t allow people to lawfully contribute to political causes they believe in. Oh no!<\/p>\n
Santa Cruz Sentinel<\/a>:<\/p>\n \nSANTA CRUZ >> A long-time Westside Chinese food restaurant has shuttered, perhaps permanently, in the face of a boycott and heated online backlash against the owner\u2019s 2016 political donations.<\/p>\n Roger Grigsby, owner of O\u2019mei Szechuan Chinese Restaurant, said on Wednesday that he made several donations adding up to $500 to the U.S. Senate campaign of Louisiana\u2019s David Duke during his unsuccessful 2016 run. Duke served as a Ku Klux Klan leader from 1974 to 1978. Grigsby said he has been dealing with \u201cpolitical terror\u201d and an \u201cattack\u201d on his business as word of his donations has spread from an alternative news site to a business review site to neighborhood discussion boards and blogs.<\/p>\n \u201cThey spread the gossip, they spread it as if it\u2019s truth. All the things they called me: white supremacist, neo-Nazi, KKK \u2014 it\u2019s all bullshit,\u201d Grigsby said by phone. \u201cMy girlfriend and my former wife were both Chinese. Anybody who knows me, it\u2019s like the United Colors of Benetton in our restaurant. We\u2019ve had every ethnicity.\u201d<\/p>\n Grigsby\u2019s donations, publicly available information through the Federal Election Commission, were brought to light on Aug. 16 by community news site The San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center, at Indybay.org. The issue of Grigsby\u2019s donations comes in the wake of the Aug. 12 violent clashes between a white nationalist rally and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left one dead.<\/p>\n Grigsby, who also made several donations adding up to $500 to the \u201cTrump Make America Great Again Committee,\u201d according to public campaign disclosure listings on the U.S. Federal Election Commission website fec.gov, defended his support of Duke\u2019s campaign. Duke, he said, is unfairly characterized by the news media as a \u201chate caricature.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe is defending the civil rights of European-Americans, whites, defending them from attacks against them,\u201d Grigsby said of Duke. \u201cIf you can\u2019t see that in the media, I don\u2019t know what to tell you. The very word, \u2018white supremacist\u2019 is an attack. Nobody calls Mexicans and blacks and Chinese \u2018Nazis.\u2019 They only call white people \u2018Nazis.\u2019 The idea there is to make guilt by association of two words. White people and evil Nazis.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We can’t allow people to lawfully contribute to political causes they believe in. Oh no! Santa Cruz Sentinel: SANTA CRUZ >> A long-time Westside Chinese food restaurant has shuttered, perhaps permanently, in the face of a boycott and heated online … Continue reading