Supporting AAPI Restaurants in Rural Kentucky
Two downloadable posters to take a stand against racism and hatred.
Of all the passages from Michelle Eigenheer’s powerful Tuesday essay here on The Goldenrod about her efforts to report on how Asian-owned restaurants in rural Kentucky are doing two years into the pandemic—and the difficult realities she discovered in the process—one particular moment stood out to me.
It was that the Kentucky Restaurant Association wasn’t doing anything—anything!—to help. Here it is in Michelle’s words:
And the information from Kentucky Restaurant Association CEO Stacy Roof sent its own message. When I reached out for data and insights into the industry situation and Asian-owned restaurants, she told me she couldn’t be much help beyond the member survey, which didn’t include the restaurants I asked about. “In my experience they haven't been members of KRA, they have their own group they belong to,” she wrote in an email.
I wondered how that would preclude them from being part of the primary association in the state. And I asked, along with questions about whether any effort had been made to engage them or offer support, especially when it became clear that they would need it. After all, campaigns emerged early in the pandemic to save Chinatowns across the US and to Stop AAPI Hate.
“All restaurants are welcome to join KRA, but I can only think of a couple of places that are specifically Chinese that are members,” Roof wrote. “In my experience, most restaurants are not members of multiple associations. Membership is voluntary and we represent all restaurants in the state, we do not categorize by market segment.”
I reached out to Asian chefs who told me that they weren’t surprised. The relationship had long been contentious, they described, boiling it down to a lack of cooperation and patience in bridging language barriers, especially as it related to paperwork and logistics.
When I first read these quotes from Kentucky Restaurant Association CEO Stacy Roof I was shocked—and then angry. The KRA touts a laundry list of benefits for members on its website including:
Information Hotline: “KRA staff can provide members with confidential, anonymous information and assistance with wage and hour, health, safety, employee, compliance and management issues affecting your operation.”
Legislative Services: “Staff represents KRA members on all state legislative and regulatory issues…”
Advertising: “Discounted ad rates for KRA [members] with the Courier Journal, Louisville Magazine, Lexington Herald Leader [and] Kentucky Restaurant Journal…”
Legal Services: “KRA members get 15 minutes of free legal advice per month, and discounted rates for larger matters.”
To say that Chinese and Asian-owned restaurants could’ve desperately used some of these services over the past two years is an understatement. I can't imagine why—if you claim to represent “all restaurants in the state”—your organization wouldn't make membership offers at discounted rates (or, um, free) to those businesses struggling the most against xenophobia and hatred. But they didn't.
They didn't even speak out at all.
That’s why we decided to make a couple of shareable posters in support of the AAPI restaurant community in our state and region. Click here to download the posters, then hang them up wherever you see fit in your community—coffee shop, dive bar—and share widely on social media. Who knows, maybe we’ll mail a few copies to the KRA.
(Click the image to download!)
(Click the image to download!)
We’ll be back tomorrow with our legislative superlatives as the session reaches a fever pitch of disappointing bill ideas greasing their way through legislative chambers. (Also, a few housekeeping reminders…) In the meantime, share this post to encourage your community to support Chinese and Asian-owned restaurants: