Spokane bar, Daiquiri Factory, takes heat on ‘Date Grape Koolaid’, thousands sign several petitions
Daiquiri Factory, a new bar in Spokane, Washington, is featuring a drink offensively named: “Date Grape Koolaid.” After recent local protests and national outrage, Left Action launched the petition “Tell the Daiquiri Factory: Drop the Date Grape Drink” signed by over 5,100 people.
VIEW THE PETITION HERE: http://leftaction.com/action/
Image/Care2 Screen Shot
Taylor Malone, who launched and organized an effort to boycott the bar, said “Every year over 100,000 people are the victims of date rape. Alcohol is involved in 90% of those. Ignoring the reality of rape and creating an environment where it’s seen as a joke only serves to perpetuate rape culture. It allows date rape to continue in silence, and it shames victims and survivors everywhere.”
In addition, Malone, who is a sexual assault survivor, has started a petition on Care2 that has gained 4,606 signatures from activists demanding the bar’s management remove the drink and properly apologize for condoning rape culture.
VIEW THE PETITION HERE: http://www.care2.com/go/
When it was explained to Daiquiri Factory why the drink name might be extremely offensive, particularly to survivors of sexual assault, they claimed that it wasn’t a big deal, wasn’t “meant to offend,” and that they had no intention of changing it. Even in the face of in-person protests from actual survivors.
The owner of Daiquiri Factory, Jamie Pendleton, said he has no intention of changing the name of the drink and the bar’s Facebook page boasted of their profiting from the attention proclaiming “”Thanks So Much Spokane! We Sold Over 10 Gallons of Date Grape Koolaid Tonight!” after their opening day.
For more information on the protest effort, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/
