Letter: Reconsider your choice

Published 12:15 am Saturday, June 29, 2024

To the proprietors of the businesses in Astoria who use an ethnic slur in your business names, I’d love to invite you to reconsider your choice.

Every year our community receives visitors from all over the world. Many come from parts of the world where the Romani people are marginalized, criminalized and dispossessed. “Gypsy,” while conjuring whimsy and magic for some, is the slur used to diminish and write off the humanity of a whole group of people across Europe, Africa and the Middle East — a group targeted in the Holocaust, derided and excluded to this day.

This is not about being “offensive.” It’s about refusing to carry the water for bigotry and oppression in a global society — even if you may never meet a victim of these pernicious stories. I invite you to lean into the creative opportunity to find new names, and maybe even to put up a little sign in your window explaining the change.

Respect, kindness and goodwill are better foundations for your brand than bigotry or ignorance.

ANGUS MAGUIRE

Astoria