On March 30th, Kim Belew stopped by Coin & Treasure in Lafayette, with the intention of buying a 2021 Silver Eagle. When she got to the shop at 2472 W Congress St., she saw something that disturbed her.
A sign on the front door read, “Coin & Treasure PROUDLY refuses admittance to any Chinese Communist MoFo.”
Belew posted saying that she now refuses to do business with the shop.
Coin & Treasure is a popular shop that claims to have developed a reputation for being a knowledgeable and trustworthy resource for rare coins, gold, silver, bullion, and other collectibles.
Leslie Bourque, a Lafayette resident who once ran for state representative, was equally upset and in a Facebook post, Bourque shared her outrage.
“If we allow this, we are allowing hate to infiltrate our city,” she said. “Please help me to eliminate this. It must be a collective effort to send a message. Please boycott this type of mind set.”
She continued, “I am embarrassed- not for me or my city or state, but for this business and anyone who accepts this as gospel.”
Her post concluded with the hashtag, #STOPASIANHATE.
Bourque’s had collected 224 comments and 124 shares, as of Monday evening. Comments on the post express outrage at the shop’s message, especially during a time where violence against members of the Asian American population is on an uptick.
CBS This Morning Lead National Correspondent, David Begnaud commented that he contacted the shop’s owner, Louis Pizzolatto. Pizzolatto said that he put the sign up a year ago, during Covid, as a way of criticizing the Chinese communist party. When Begnaud asked if Pizzolatto would take the sign down, the owner replied, “I probably will because I don’t want my employees to have problems with it. But do I feel the same way? Yes.”
A time stamped photo, taken by Facbook poster Ashley Isabelle, confirmed that the sign was still on the door at 6:17 Monday evening.
The blatantly racist sign is especially disturbing, considering that violence against Asian Americans has become a nearly daily occurrence. On Monday, the same day the sign was noticed on the door of Coin & Treasure, a 65-year-old Asian American woman was physically and verbally attacked by an unidentified man in Midtown Manhattan. Earlier in the month, 76-year-old Xiao Zhen Xie fought back when she was attacked by a man in San Francisco. On March 17th, a gunman was charged with killing 8 people during an attack on Asian-owned massage parlors in an incident that The Associated Press noted sent terror through the Asian American Community.
Racism and prejudice of any sort can’t be tolerated in our communities and in our state. All it takes is one to fuel racism and it’s up to the rest of us to reject it.
Big Easy Magazine reached out to the owner of Coin & Treasure for comment but was unable to receive a response at the time of this posting.
