Lance Perkins defended the sign, saying he avoided using Black Friday because of the Trudeau blackface scandal: ‘It doesn’t say whites only’
With only six weeks left till Christmas, Pembroke gun shop owner Lance Perkins decided to have a gun sale. On Thursday, he put up a sign outside his shop, Perkins Guns and Ammo, that read, ‘GUN DEALS. ALL YOU PEOPLE. COME ON IN. WHITE FRIDAY SALE.’
Two weeks later, Perkins says he’s “surprised” to find himself defending what he thought was a neutrally worded sign. ‘I’ve never had a Black Friday sale,” he said. “I still had one place left on my sign, and to be honest, after poor Trudeau screwed the word — black — with the blackface scandal, I just thought, ‘well there’s no way I can advertise a Black Friday sale,’: he said. “I didn’t want to be pulled into that nightmare.
He opted for the word ‘white’ as it reminded him of snow and the upcoming Christmas holidays. “It has nothing to do with anyone’s skin,” he emphasized repeatedly. “It doesn’t say whites only. I don’t know why it’s been blown up to be such a large issue, it’s not a racial thing.”
However, the phrase has earned Perkins some slight backlash. “A couple of ladies phoned me, they didn’t understand the sign,” he said, adding that they calmed down once he had explained the intent of the message. “I’m not here to upset anybody,” he said. “I just want to take care of my clients.”
A phrase included in the sign is also reminiscent of one used by hockey icon Don Cherry in a Sportsnet segment that earned him backlash and ultimately got him fired. However, Perkins says he doesn’t think Cherry did anything wrong and posted the slogan as a way of showing his support.