A campaign by a D.C. business mocking “Mayor for Life” Marion Barry is drawing criticism and sparking calls for a boycott. News4’s Shawn Yancy explains.
A campaign by a D.C. business mocking “Mayor for Life” Marion Barry is drawing criticism and sparking calls for a boycott.
&pizza promoted a new menu item called Marion Berry Knots, a dessert with marionberries. The dish is “so good it’s likely a felony,” a press release said Monday.
“For a good time, it’s the powder that’s the ultimate headline grabber. The Marion Berry Knots have enough powdered sugar that will have customers bumping elbows to order and even force the DEA to look twice,” &pizza said in ad copy full of drug references.
D.C.’s NAACP branch called on &pizza to take the “inflammatory, culturally insensitive and drug-use insinuating” item off the menu and to “issue remuneration to support substance-abuse prevention in all cities within the &Pizza marketing area.”
The four-term mayor got his start in politics as a civil rights activist and remains revered by many Washingtonians. A statue of Barry stands outside the Wilson Building in downtown D.C., and Southeast D.C. has Marion Barry Avenue SE.
Barry was arrested in a hotel room in 1990 in a videotaped drug sting by the FBI and D.C. police. He famously complained that his ex-girlfriend, an FBI informant, had set him up. Out of 14 charges, a jury convicted him of a single misdemeanor possession charge.
Barry was sentenced to six months in prison, released in 1992 and won the Ward 8 D.C. Council seat. He returned as mayor for a fourth term in 1994 and remained influential until he died in 2014 at 78. Next month marks a decade since his death.
NAACP DC President Akosua Ali said in a statement Tuesday: “The life, legacy, lineage and name of Marion Barry deserves to be remembered as a pioneer for economic development, real-estate development, black business empowerment, youth employment and as the Mayor of the people. Mayor Barry taught us the power of economics and today, we call on the community to demand &Pizza right this egregious wrong."
&pizza is “spitting on Marion Barry’s grave,” community activist Ron Moten said on Instagram. “[…] We cannot continue to support people who disrespect us.”
Moten said discussions are underway for a boycott of the chain, which opened its first location on H Street NE in 2012 and now has locations in D.C., Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Former D.C. first lady Cora Masters Barry is hurt by the menu item and campaign, a representative told News4. She was flooded with calls from community leaders and residents who “expressed disappointment and outrage by the promotion’s interference,” the representative said. She “requested that the attorneys for the Estate of Marion Barry Jr. look into the matter and act accordingly,” the representative said.
D.C. restaurant owner Peyton Sherwood said on X that &pizza “crossed a line.”
“Barry’s life was about opportunity, dignity, and equality for everyone in Washington, D.C. To reduce that legacy to a crass ad about his darkest moments is not only offensive it’s cruel,” he wrote. “It disregards the immense good Barry did for this city and the battles he fought on behalf of all its people.”
News4 sends breaking news stories by email. Go here to sign up to get breaking news alerts in your inbox.
News4 asked &pizza if they wanted to comment on the reaction to their campaign.
CEO Mike Burns said in a statement: “We’re talking about a marionberry, that’s spelled with an ‘e’. We stuff that into a knot, drizzle it with icing and then top it with powdered sugar. It’s delicious – we can’t wait for D.C. to try it.”
