Local leaders of Amsterdam were quite stumped after a new business owner used a racist slur to refer to the city on social media. The business owner was promoting his nightclub after opening it in the heart of the city.
The Daily Gazette was the first newspaper to report the situation- where they quoted Corwin Hendy of Ravena, who also posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday. There, he was asking for prayers as he sought approval from the Planning Board in ‘Amsterrico’. When asked for comment on Saturday, Hendy mentioned that he thought the word was quite an innocent nickname for the capital of the Netherlands.
Amsterdam Nightclub Owner Makes A Racial Slip
The owner of this nightclub in Amsterdam further stated that he had spoken to a few people that he knew- even people who lived in the city, and heard them say the name a few times. He had no idea if it was a derogatory term when people were using it- so when he thought about this word to himself and thought that the Spanish culture dominated the area- he took it as a nickname that referenced Puerto Rico. He further claimed that he had no intention of disrespecting the people or the city where he was about to institute his nightclub.
The owner also mentioned that he had deleted the post as soon as he got to know that the term was derogatory. He also apologized on the Amsterdam rebuild page that had alerted him. And yet, this doesn’t look good for him. According to Dave Gormula, the Second Ward Alderman, this was not a good start to a new business. He thinks that if people saw what he had written, they would say that he was against minorities. And considering there are plenty of minorities in Amsterdam- it might not look good.
Mayor Michael Cinquanti also stated that he had spent an entire day going to the nightclub in Amsterdam- where he spoke to him about the city- and how to be respectful to the ethnic mix.
