The owners of a new business in Indiana say they were targeted with a racist message warning them to shut down because their venture would not be supported.
"Close shop! We don't support black business owners!" reads the sheet of paper business partners Tony Jones and Sami Ali said was shoved through a mail slot in the door of their new gaming lounge in Indianapolis on Saturday.
Jones and Ali filed a police report over the incident, WTHR reported, but they said it seems as though the hateful act has, in a way, backfired.
"It doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt us at all, the way it affects us, it motivates us to reach out and do what we had been doing to bring people together," Jones said.
Other businesses and neighbors have rallied around Jones and Ali, to show that their community does not stand for intolerance.
"You are not welcome," area resident Beth Droste-Glowinski, adding, "Your thoughts are not welcome, your actions are not welcome you need to find somewhere else to be 'cause this is not where you belong."
The Level Up gaming lounge is opening this fall, the owners said, as a place for gamers of all age to compete and socialize.
