Maine insurance agency faces online backlash after racist Juneteenth sign

An insurance plan agency in Millinocket, Maine, is experiencing on-line backlash just after a photograph circulated on Fb of a signal taped to the business’s doorway on Monday indicating, “Juneteenth ~it really is whatever… We are closed. Appreciate your fried hen & collard greens.”

The image of the indication at the Harry E. Reed Insurance policies Agency, an affiliate of national insurance company Progressive, was at first shared by a Facebook user named Alura Stillwagon, with the caption, “The racism in Millinocket is genuine.” The unique post has been shared more than 200 times, however a equivalent submit by a various user has been shared more than 10,000 instances.

“I’m not indignant. Anger gets you nowhere. I’m just deeply, deeply dissatisfied,” another Facebook person, Ken Anderson, commented on the write-up. “In this company, in the businesses that let this company broker their products, and in the town of Millinocket, in the state of Maine, and the total damn region. Deeply unhappy. Why? Since I know we can do much better. But we’re not seeking. And that’s the element that cuts deepest.”

For lots of firms, Monday marked the observance of Juneteenth, a federal holiday that commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Military soldiers arrived in Texas and declared the close of slavery to far more than 250,000 Black folks who remained enslaved even immediately after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, in accordance to the National Museum of African American Record and Society.

The insurance policies agency did not respond to CNBC’s requests for comment, but Melanie Higgins instructed News Heart Maine she was the employee who posted the sign and apologized.

“I would never purposely set out to damage everyone and I would by no means purposely set out to damage my mom’s enterprise at all. She had almost nothing to do with this,” Higgins claimed. “I genuinely apologize.”

Because the impression of the sign started circulating online, people today have taken to on the web evaluation internet site Yelp to condemn the insurance coverage company, prompting Yelp to disable users’ skill to submit on the firm’s page.

“This enterprise lately been given improved general public focus resulting in an inflow of persons posting their views to this website page, so we have temporarily disabled the capacity to write-up here as we perform to examine the material,” an warn on the Harry E. Reed Coverage Agency’s Yelp site reads. “Although racism has no place on Yelp and we unequivocally reject racism or discrimination in any form, all opinions on Yelp will have to mirror an actual initial-hand client encounter (even if that signifies disabling the capacity for customers to express factors of watch we might concur with).”

The company obtained almost 90 — largely a single-star — Yelp testimonials, with several posters condemning the insurance policy company as “racist.”

Jeff Sibel, a spokesperson for Progressive, mentioned in a statement, “We are mindful and appalled by the indication not too long ago posted at the Harry E Reed Company and are terminating our connection with the agency.”

“At Progressive, Range, Fairness and Inclusion (DEI) are elementary to our Main Values. We are dedicated to building an environment the place our persons come to feel welcomed, valued and highly regarded and be expecting that everyone representing Progressive to choose part in this commitment. The sign is in immediate violation of that determination and won’t align with our firm’s Core Values and Code of Carry out,” Sibel stated in a statement.

The chair of the Millinocket City Council, Steve Golieb, unveiled a statement Tuesday denouncing the sign.

“It is deeply saddening, disgraceful and unacceptable for any particular person, business or firm to endeavor to make light of Juneteenth and what it represents for hundreds of thousands of slaves and their residing descendants,” Golieb wrote. “There is no area in the City of Millinocket for this kind of a blatant disregard of human decency.”

President Joe Biden and the condition of Maine every signed payments into legislation in June 2021 recognizing Juneteenth as a federal and condition holiday break.