RUSTON, Wash. — The Point Ruston Owners Association has come under fire for allegedly denying vendors from participating in a farmers market over the type of food they serve.
The controversy began when Tacoma Farmers Market announced on Saturday a directive from the Point Ruston Owners Association to stop selling what they described as “any Mexican style food” at their Sunday market. As a result, two vendors selling Mexican food were removed.
The announcement comes despite the Tacoma Farmers Market being a completely separate entity from the Point Ruston Owners Association.
It caused an uproar on social media, with many declaring that they will not visit until the issue is resolved.
Point Ruston put out a statement, stating that the organization has an exclusivity clause with the contracts of their brick-and-mortar vendors in regards to Mexican cuisine.
When Amelia Escobedo of the Leagues of United Latin American Citizens PNW got wind of the announcement, the message was clear.
“To me, that says, ‘No Mexicans Allowed,'” she said. “That means no Brown people allowed. That means you’re not welcome here.”
None of the restaurants on Point Ruston’s website serve that style of cuisine exclusively.
In fact, the only restaurant that does is Taco Street, located at the Waterfront Market in Ruston, which is its own entity.
“It’s completely separate from Point Ruston,” said Paul Kunitsa, general manager of Waterfront Market at Ruston. “The Farmers Market happens in that Breezeway. So it’s obviously pretty far from us. We don’t even have an access point to get there right now.”
Kunitsa said news of the announcement caught him by surprise and he hopes his vendors aren’t impacted by the controversy.
“It’s frustrating,” Kunitsa said. “We mind our business, take care of our market, build up our vendors, and focus on us, so all this stuff just came out of the blue.”
Civil rights attorney Molly Matter said enforcing a clause like this would be nearly impossible because it amounts to discrimination on race and national origin, which is illegal.
“You can’t say I’m only serving white people, or I’m not serving this particular racial ethnicity. This is what we’re talking about, it’s completely illegal,” Matter said. “I’m not a contract lawyer, but I can’t imagine that this would hold up in court. I can’t imagine a judge would look at this and not see the pretext for racial discrimination.”
Now Escobedo wonders how far this could go, and is calling on vendors of color to check their paperwork.
“We have to dive into what they’re writing in the memos, into the different contracts so we know what’s in there, the verbiage, that’s racist,” Escobedo said. “If we don’t do that, nobody is going to do it for you. If someone doesn’t like your skin color, or what you look like, they’re not going do that for you. We have to do that.”
The Point Ruston Owner's Association did not respond to requests for comment Monday.