Wake Up and Smell the Racism
28/03/18
"Do not speak Arabic." This is what the manager of an Aroma Café in Arad told his employees. The Aroma Café chain publicly stood by his behavior - but our community refused to let this racism pass quitely:
Over 5,000 Zazim members called on Aroma to change their offensive guidelines, which bar workers from speaking in Arabic, and 150 more donated to put up billboards outside the cafe in Arad saying: “ممكن قهوة؟” (“Can I have a coffee” in Arabic). But when Zazim members went to see the billboards, they discovered that some were vandalized and the Arabic erased: 
When Arab citizens face a growing wave of incitement and discrimination, the decisions of a popular chain like Aroma send an important message to other businesses, and the general public. In this context, it is no wonder that whoever vandalized our signs specifically tried to erase the Arabic. But we are not backing down: our pressure already forced Aroma to reach out and contact us. They tried to convince us that the guidelines banning Arabic in their cafes are no longer enforced, but clearly that message is not clear to Aroma cafe owners. We are expecting an official and public statement disavowing the racist guidelines.