PEMBROKE - A Pembroke business owner advertised a “White Friday” sale over the weekend, and invoked Don Cherry’s infamous phrase “you people” in the same sign in front of his store.
“I don’t know why people got upset”, Lance Perkins, owner of Perkins Guns and Ammo told CTV Ottawa.
He put it up on November 14th, but changed it a few days later.
“My ‘White Friday’ sale in regards to selling guns or crossbows or anything in the store, had nothing to do with colour, it’s just a sale…we’re allowed to have sales in Canada”, he said.
Perkins insists the message is not racist. He just doesn’t like the phrase “Black Friday”, because it is too closely associated with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s blackface scandal.
“This year I don’t really know why people got offended by the use of the word ‘white’. I couldn’t use the word ‘black’ because of Trudeau using blackface”, he said.
“All you see in the newspaper is Black Fridays…Black Fridays…and you know what, I said we’re not American, let’s go with a different shade, a different colour”, he said. “I picked white because it resembles white snow, it resembles Christmas. Why not go with something brighter than black.”
The sign in front of the store read:
“GUN DEALS
ALL YOU PEOPLE
COME ON IN
WHITE FRIDAY SALE”
As for including Don Cherry’s phrase “you people”, that ultimately cost him his job, Perkins makes no apologies.
“I believe the man is a great Canadian, he did not pick out anybody in regards to race”, he said. “But he wasn’t racist…he just said what was on his mind.”
Perkins admits he did get complaints about the sign but that’s not why he changed it. He says it’s a relatively new sign, and they tend to change the message in front of the store every few days.
“I don’t get it. Nobody here is racist”, he said.
It’s also not clear when his “White Friday” sale began or when it ends.
“I wouldn’t call it a joke, it’s still a sale. It’s just a sale” Perkins said.
