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AURORA, Colo. — A white metropolis councilman is rebuffing calls to resign for utilizing racial and spiritual stereotypes to painting Muslim, Latino, Black and Asian folks on movies supposed to advertise his sports activities bar.
Steve Sundberg posted the movies to the Fb web page of Legends of Aurora Sports activities Grill in 2020, however they solely caught the eye of leaders and advocacy teams in December.
Sundberg has since apologized and eliminated the movies, saying they have been an try at humor through the darkest days of the pandemic, however he continues to attract outrage from constituents, different council members and elected statewide leaders who're all demanding his resignation.
The state of affairs is harking back to final yr's racism scandal in Los Angeles the place a recording surfaced of three Latino council members and a Latino labor chief making crude, bigoted feedback about Black folks.
One of many three, former Council President Nury Martinez, resigned shortly after the recording turned public. However the different two, Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, resisted widespread calls to step down, together with from President Joe Biden. Cedillo's time period led to December, however de León continues to be on the council.
Sundberg, who made greater than a dozen movies earlier than he was elected in 2021, is proven in a single carrying conventional Muslim clothes and a turban whereas sitting on a prayer mat, studying critiques of his restaurant aloud in a Center Jap accent.
“Hey, it’s Steve Syeed from Legends. My job is reply Google and Yelp assessment,” he stated, deliberately butchering the language.
When an worker approaches and asks if he needs bacon, the councilman grabs a scimitar and seems to repeatedly yell out “harman,” an Arabic phrase that means that one thing is forbidden for Muslims to eat, use or do.
In one other video, Sundberg pretends to be a person named Victor, a Spanish translator carrying a poncho and selling the day’s menu particular — a beef or hen enchilada plate with cheese and onions — in damaged Spanish and English.
Reached by cellphone, Sundberg defended the movies, saying he has portrayed a number of characters through the years on his restaurant's web site, together with a crocodile hunter and a French chef, and these have been no totally different.
Earlier than speeding off the cellphone, Sundberg added that nobody expressed concern concerning the movies after they have been first posted and that media reviews of subsequent dissent had been exaggerated.
“In a darkish Covid shut down, when companies have been preventing to outlive, with folks experiencing psychological well being points, uncertainty, suicide, substance abuse, home violence and worry, we have been capable of present via a variety of movies, humor and lightweight heartedness, which drove enterprise and cheered folks up,” the councilman later wrote in a textual content message.
However not everyone seems to be laughing.
“He seems like he’s above reproach,” stated Aurora Metropolis Councilman Juan Marcano, who's Latino and thinks Sundberg ought to resign. “I grew up with folks like this, they suppose that racism is humor. When folks present you who they're, imagine them.”
Jaylani Hussein, government director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a nonprofit advocacy group, stated Sundberg’s movies have been offensive and supposed to demonize Muslim traditions.
“It’s Islamophobia,” Hussein stated, including that Sundberg nonchalantly mocked and belittled Muslim customs.
Aurora, with practically 400,000 residents, is without doubt one of the most various cities in Colorado. About 30% of its inhabitants is Latino, 16% is Black, and 6 % Asian, in keeping with U.S. census knowledge.
Victor Marquez, a Latino chef on the sports activities grill, defended Sundberg throughout a Metropolis Council assembly final month, saying the restaurant was struggling and dealing with doable closure when a plan was devised to make the skits to draw enterprise.
“We didn’t need to hurt anyone. We determined as a substitute of closing the enterprise, we'd do advertising,” Marquez stated in Spanish via an interpreter, including that some employees members had been laid off earlier than the movies have been made.
However some state lawmakers stated there was no excuse for Sundberg’s actions.
State Rep. Iman Jodeh, a Democrat who in 2020 turned Colorado’s first Muslim lawmaker, stated Sundberg ought to step down.
“I feel what he did was inexcusable,” stated Jodeh, whose district contains Aurora. “It’s exhausting, always having to name folks out or clarify to them what they’re doing fallacious.”
In a 3rd video, Sundberg pretends to advertise the day’s $10.99 particular — hen curry, greens and white rice — in a South Asian accent.
“However we should warn you, it’s like an aphrodisiac while you style these things,” he says.
In a fourth video, selling Legends’ darkish lager beer, often known as black beer, Sundberg makes use of a German accent as he talks in a males’s rest room stall with a Black patron, repeating a stereotype about Black males's genitalia.
On the Metropolis Council assembly final month, a number of residents demanded that Sundberg resign. Aurora Councilwoman Alison Coombs agreed with them.
“He had the chance to make amends, and his strategy didn't succeed,” she stated, including she believes Sundberg has not owned as much as the hurt he triggered as a result of he continues to keep up it was all a joke.
“It’s been dangerous to the neighborhood, and his response has been inappropriate,” Coombs stated.
On Wednesday, a pair dozen clients sat inside Legends, sipping beer, consuming meals and watching sports activities. Some referred to as Sundberg a pillar in the neighborhood, identified to boost cash for folks in want.
“This factor about him is absurd, “ buyer Don Blosser stated. “I can’t consider anybody right here who would name him a racist.”
Supervisor Michele Lengthy, a Latina, stated the promotional movies have been an try to remain related through the pandemic.
“They have been by no means meant to be malicious,” she stated, including, nonetheless, that she understands how folks may view them as offensive.
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