A new bumper sticker is being displayed at a place called Gross’ Burgers in Danville. The sticker is touted as patriotic by its owner, but some customers are becoming uncomfortable with it because they see it as racist. The sign says something about how if you can’t read Arabic you should thank a marine, which is where the controversy is coming from currently. The bumper sticker has actually gone viral so a lot of people are talking about it currently. The restaurant owner is apparently torn on it since so many people have asked him to take it down, but he claims that he can’t because it represents his love of country and strong convictions. The argument he made was that it represents an American way of doing things and celebrated American culture. Others say that it is bigoted and advises Marines to never help Arabic people or be associated with them in any way whatsoever. It’s an argument that is currently raging on across the Internet.

The CEO of the restaurant is a man named Brad Gross. He advises people that the bumper sticker is in no way a threat. He says that it’s just part of his patriotic collection of items. He further claims that the bumper sticker is all about his love of country, just like everything in his restaurant during the ten years of its life. Apparently, the drive to put the sticker up is due to a Marine who went to war in Iraq. The marine gave the sticker to Brad Gross because it embodied his thoughts about the situation. Many of Brad’s other clients are highly uncomfortable with the sentiment, however. Apparently, the first person to speak up was a client named Sam Schnelle. She shared her thoughts with many others online, and soon there were 800 people opposed to posting the sticker publically as well. Sam called the restaurant to ask if they could take it down, but the manager at the time simply told her there weren’t any plans to take it down. The manager said something about people being over-sensitive and hung up on Sam. However, that did not cause the complaints to stop.

For years, the complaints kept coming in, but none of this had any effect on Mr. Gross. He had gotten the sticker from a fellow marine, and would not turn back from that memory. Mr. Gross further said that he wished to employ more marines as well as people who defended him from the accusations of racism. There were more than a few comments on Facebook opining that Mr. Gross’ decision to never change and remove the sticker made them sad. People like Rachel Parker have told those in Danville to fight against racism by boycotting the Grossburger restaurant. The idea was to cause enough of an economic problem for the owner that he would have to take down the sticker to get the people of the area to come back to the restaurant again. This is a peaceful way for people to try and affect change in their town without it being too negative, is the idea from people like Rachel Parker. It’s unclear, in the long run, which point of view will win out within the small town of Danville based on the current situation.