Buffalo Wild Wings called on to do more after African American customers asked to change tables at Naperville restaurant

The Rev. Jesse Jackson called the incident a “barbaric act of racism” that will require more than a corporate apology.

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The Rev. Jesse Jackson stands with members of a group who walked out of a Naperville Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in October because another customer didn’t want to sit near African American people.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson stands with members of a group who walked out of a Naperville Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in October because another customer didn’t want to sit near African American people.

Stefano Esposito/Sun-Times

The children, one as young as 5, wanted to know: “Why are we leaving? Why don’t they like us?”

Marcus Riley still isn’t sure how to answer those questions two weeks after a group of mostly African American people walked out of a Naperville Buffalo Wild Wings after another diner made it known he doesn’t like black people.

“Who can explain racism to 5-year-olds and 12-year-olds and make them understand?” said Riley, talking to reporters Tuesday at Rainbow PUSH Coalition on the South Side.

Riley, part of the group that left the restaurant Oct. 26, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson expect to meet with the president of Buffalo Wild Wings on Monday, Jackson’s organization said. The company confirmed plans for President Lyle Tick to meet with Jackson on Monday. It said any meetings with the families will be private.

Jackson called the incident, which made national headlines, a “barbaric act of racism” that will require more than a corporate apology.

Riley and his group of 17 headed to the restaurant to, among other things, celebrate a child’s birthday. But they walked out and ate at a nearby Hooters restaurant after it was made clear to the group that a regular customer didn’t like to sit near black people.

The group has focused their anger and irritation at a Buffalo Wild Wings manager who said, after they sat down, that they would have to move because the table was already reserved.

But Tuesday, Riley and another adult in the group, Justin Vahl, had praise for the restaurant’s young, black host who warned them about the racist customer.

“We have a customer who is a regular who is racist and he doesn’t want to sit around black people,” Vahl recalled the host confiding before the group sat down.

The group decided to sit down anyway because the children were hungry, Vahl said.

“In hindsight, that young African American gentleman was actually trying to help us out and explain the situation,” Vahl said.

A little while later, the manager asked the group to move, Vahl said.

The group eventually decided to leave despite offers of free appetizers and a 25 percent discount on the bill.

“At that point, we decided we weren’t appreciated,” Riley said. “We just decided to go.”

On the way out, the group passed the host, who was “in tears,” Riley said.

The franchise announced after last month’s incident that two employees had been fired and others will undergo sensitivity training. It said the customer whose complaint started the controversy would be banned for life at the chain’s more than 1,200 restaurants.

The company said Tuesday it has been in communication with the families as well as Naperville city leaders, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Rainbow PUSH.

“Our actions to date reflect our deep commitment to our core value of community, to diversity and inclusion, and our promise to use this moment to emerge with an even more positive presence in the communities that Buffalo Wild Wings serves,” Tick, president of Buffalo Wild Wings, said in a statement issued Tuesday.

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