12/23/2025
Unacceptable. Aneesa know we love you, your family (especially your girls) and restaurants. What an inspiration you and your family are; and on top of that you are just great people! Know you have friends and allies her at Lennon’s Irish Shop
I want to address something that should never be normalized.
On a recent Albany Business Review post about the closure of one Tara Kitchen location, someone commented simply: “Deport.”
That word was directed at me — a business owner, an employer, and a mother — and it was said casually, publicly, and without consequence.
What makes this especially painful is that just a couple of weeks ago, my daughter came home from school after being told to “go back to where you came from.” She was born here. This is where she’s from. And yet she is already learning what it feels like to be told she doesn’t belong.
This kind of hostility doesn’t exist in a vacuum. For many minority-owned businesses, it creates an environment where customers are less welcoming, staff feel unsafe or unsupported, and everyday operations become harder than they should be. Over time, that takes a real toll — emotionally, culturally, and economically.
I’ve spent years building businesses, creating jobs, and contributing positively to the communities I live and work in. Closures are often explained away as “just business,” but the truth is more complicated when fear, bias, and dehumanization become part of the landscape.
This isn’t about politics. It’s about humanity. We can disagree. We can criticize businesses. But telling someone to “deport,” or teaching children they don’t belong, crosses a line that should concern all of us.
Silence allows this behavior to grow. I’m sharing this not for sympathy, but to say clearly: this is not acceptable.
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