A taxpayer-funded food pantry in Minnesota has come under fire after it was revealed that the owner attempted to block white people from accessing the resources.
Mykela ‘keiko’ Jackson opened a pantry on July 27th using funds the obtained through a Minnesota State grant, for the purpose of feeding poor and hungry residents near the Sanctuary Covenant Church. However, the pantry was forced to relocate after a church chaplain filed a complaint over Jackson allegedly discouraging white people from using the service.
Chaplain Howard Dotson, 54, told Alpha News that he had stopped by the pantry for himself, but was denied service due to being a white male.
Dotson took photos of a sign that Jackson had on the pantry door that read, ‘The resources found here are for Black and Indigenous Folx. Please refrain from taking anything if you’re not.’ He also reported the incident to the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission.
”This is not building community, its destroying it,” he told Alpha News. “I went over there and confronted her. I told her that I saw the sign and I asked if she really thought she could take grant money from the state and discriminate against poor white people.”
According to the DailyMail, Jackson addmitted to hanging the sign, but claims that she did not turn anyone away. She then accused the chaplain of ‘political violence’.
”There was no one there directly turning them away. They felt entitled to the resources that were not for their demographic – white priviledge is real,” she said.
In a social media post announcing the pantry’s relocation, Jacosn referred to the chaplain as a “karen”, blaming him for the discrimination he faced from her policy.
“It has been recently brought to our attention that our partnership with Sanctuary Church may not be fully aligned with our mission due to a recent ‘Karen’ last week,” Jackson wrote.
“Although the curch likes our concept they feel our commitment towards directing these resources towards Black and Indigenous families ONLY is exclusionary to other POC & White members of the community that use their establishement.”
The DailyMail reported that the Sanctuary Covenant Church has since stated that they felt misled by Jackson’s original proposal. They have asked her to either open her services to all members of the community or relocate.
Jackson refused to accommodate and later stated in her post that the pantry would be relocating to the F.T.P Bodega, claiming that the new venue is more “aligned” with Jackson’s discriminatory beliefs.
