Smile Politely

Rogue Barber Co. had a very bad week, and they deserve it

Rogue Barber Co., located at 12 E. Washington Street in Downtown Champaign, has been under fire for their racist and bigoted commentary on/from their Facebook page. Their commentary is directed towards citizens of C-U associated with the Black Lives Matter movement.

The shop is requiring a “membership” to patronize their business, and you can see a few posts about the guidelines to the membership until the posts were recently deleted:

IMAGE: Screenshot of Rogue Barber's Facebook post. There's text, and below that, an image of a red sign that says
Image from Rogue Barber Co’s Facebook page.

IMAGE: A screenshot of a comment left by Rogue Barber Co on Facebook.
Image from Facebook.

IMAGE: A screenshot of a comment left by Rogue Barber Co on Facebook.
Image from Facebook.

Yesterday, a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest took place around C-U, and protestors took time in front of Rogue Barber Co. to voice their concern for the behavior of the business. As that peaceful protest took place, a man associated with the barber shop drove a red pickup truck through the group as they were standing on Washington Street. You can watch that video here. It does not appear anyone was injured.

In addition, Black Rose/Rosa Negra made this post condeming the actions of the barber shop, referencing the “a long history of anti-Black barbers in Champaign County, which stretches back to the Jim Crow era, when it was common for Champaign barbers to ban Black customers.”

Top image from Black Roose/Rosa Negra’s Facebook post.

Executive Editor

More Articles