What are you insinuating? You’re not insinuating that this guy can’t speak English, are you?

I’m confused by the confusion surrounding this story:

An Abbotsford business man is under fire for posting a ‘No negroes allowed’ sign in his future gentlemen’s club.

Yeah, see, that would be really straightforward, except that’s not what the sign says. Have a look:

See, it’s not “No Negroes,” as in the plural noun. It’s “no negro’s…” the possessive form. So we still don’t really know what’s not allowed. The negro’s…something. Something, belonging to negroes, are not allowed in this building.

Weird, yes. Wrong, yes. Really, really strange, yes.

But the sign doesn’t say that negroes aren’t allowed. It’s something belonging to one or more negroes that isn’t allowed.

Here, watch the clip yourself and see:

A touch of transcript:

“I think I have the right as a business owner to reject service to anyone…and, you know, it’s not all the black people, it’s just a few bad ones…”

Oh. Um. Oh. So he did mean “negroes.” He just can’t write decent English.

Ironic.

So. What’s the best part of this story?

• That his grammar is so bad;

• That the two black women interviewed were both far, far better spoken (and, it seems likely, better-smelling) than the 1960s-era proprietor;

• That the proprietor intends to open a “gentlemen’s club” in this building:

Classy.