Is Ebola Really Causing This Minneapolis African Restaurant to Close?
Owners of an African restaurant say their small business has fallen victim to Ebola-noia, the pervasive paranoia that's sweeping some corners of America, where residents are overcome with fear about the disease that has killed thousands in Africa and one man in Texas.
Kellita Whisnant owns MaMa Ti's African Kitchen in Brooklyn Park, Minn., and as cameras from local television station KMSP recorded, she climbed up on a ladder to put black tape over the word "African" on her restaurant's sign this week. It's a tearful moment that's a little tough to watch.
“This African name that brought people in before is now hurting me," she told the station.
To be perfectly clear, Ebola is not transmitted through food—particularly food that's prepared thousands of miles away from Africa by people who don't have Ebola. It's like avoiding sushi in California because a Japanese person in Tokyo caught a cold—which is easier to transmit than Ebola is.
The restaurant's lone Yelp review only gives it two stars, and after three years in business its Facebook fans number fewer than 100—so Whisnant's claim that business is down more than 50 percent is a little hard to verify independently. Despite projections from the National Restaurant Association that restaurant sales in Minnesota are expected to grow 3 percent in 2014, the outlook at Mama Ti's is dour, and the owners considering switching to serving American deli food to stay in business.
Whatever the cause of the restaurant's lack of business, the Ebola excuse for avoiding Mama Ti's is nonsense.
Related stories on TakePart:
• Paranoid Parents Want Teacher Quarantined When She Returns From Ebola-Free Rwanda
• Dear America: Don’t Panic About Ebola. Seriously.
• Taking Fruit Bats off the Dinner Menu Will Help Stop Ebola
• Did Deforestation Cause Ebola?
Original article from TakePart
