Horn Barbecue Oakland Faced Vandalism and Racist Media Coverage

Oakland (Special to ZennieReport.com) – Tragedy fell to popular West Oakland eatery Horn Barbecue on Tuesday morning, November 21st, 2023. Just two days before Thanksgiving, a fire was set to Horn Barbecue, the building owned by Pitmaster Matt Horn at 2534 Mandela Parkway. But what came after that, media racism aimed at horn barbecue, was just as bad.

The fire happened two days after the Sunday of Thanksgiving Week 2023 (a Holy day) that vandals painted graffiti on the building, and on the parked delivery van.

Horn Barbecue Update: Horn Barbecue Truck Vandalized, Gas Siphoned, Dead Chicken Left

After the original vandalism done to Horn Barbecue on the Sunday before Thanksgiving 2023, something else happened. It was after the Fire that damaged the headquarters of Pittmaster Matt Horn’s famed West Oakland eatery, at 2534 Mandela Parkway. It was another horrible incident that occurred before Saturday New Year’s Eve, Eve 2023.

Someone smashed in the passenger-side window of the Horn Barbecue delivery truck, left glass all over the seats and floor, dropped a dead chicken next to the vehicle’s door, and then went to take the gas out of the vehicle. Here’s the news video, based on a vlog created by Oakland activist Seneca Scott, who informed Zennie62Media, and based on a tip he received from a neighbor in the area:

And why would someone leave a dead chicken, which is against California law, in itself? What’s the message? According to Answers.com, it may point to a “bad omen”:

“A dead chicken on a door step may mean different things in voodoo or sanitera. This is used to indicate a bad omen in most instances.”

Considering what already happened to Horn Barbecue, what other action could be that “bad omen”?

The First Crime Done To Horn Barbecue Before Thanksgiving 2023

The Oakland Fire Department (OFD) reported that it responded to the fire at Horn Barbecue at 4:19 AM PST on that day, and that the fire began in the rear of the restaurant and firefighters arrived to find smoke coming out of the attic, according to OFD Spokesman Michael Hunt. The fire and graffiti damage to Horn BBQ was so great that Nina Horn, wife of Chef and Founder started a GoFundMe page that has raised over $100,000 of a needed $200,000, to date.

The horror was enough, but what came after was in some ways just as worse: media coverage reflecting the worst racial stereotypes about African Americans in business, and with zero consideration for the West Oakland crime problem or the lingering effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Oakland restaurants.

SFGate Issues Sad, Racist, Attack On Horn Barbecue After Fire

Why did the editors at SFGate.com take a racist stance against Horn Barbecue Oakland (https://www.hornbarbecue.com/) in the wake of vandalism done to its restaurant? The reference point is this article Zennie62Media calls an SF Gate article called “After a year mired in debt, Oakland’s Horn Barbecue hit by massive fire.”

Rather than explain how Oakland businesses have been the focus of crimes, the SFGate / San Francisco Chronicle news reporter named Madilynne Medina took the moment of intense tragedy to refocus on the racist media theme that Horn Barbecue Oakland (located at 2534 Mandela Pkwy in West Oakland) has questionable financial behavior, AKA: “Here’s another black business that doesn’t pay its bills.” Moreover, never once did Ms. Medina even mention the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Horn BBQ’s bottom line.

Zennie62Media Vlogger Richard Haick made an excellent vlog pointing to the injustice of SFGate’s actions, as well as putting them in the context of Oakland’s current economic and social problems:

Madilynne Medina’s overall message was that Horn Barbecaue Oakland deserved the vandalism that happened to it. Approximately 50 percent of the post was used to reintroduce themes SFGate.com and the San Francisco Chronicle issued last year.

Moreover, The Hearst Corporation publications assigned not one, but now four writers (to date) to the subject of Horn Barbecue: the aforementioned Madilynne Medina, Nico Madrigal-Yankowski, Cesar Hernandez, and Alex Shultz. Of them, Alex Shultz is listed as the “politics editor for SFGATE”. Alex Shultz also had a hand in the more recent hit job done by Ms. Medina. And as the count tallies, that’s not one, but two political hit jobs done by SFGATE.COM to Horn Barbecue.

SFGATE Assigns Political Writers To Make Horn Barbecue Oakland Hit Pieces

Alex Shultz, who’s been with SFGate.com for just over three years, also appears listed as “politics editor for SFGATE” on the website of the Houston Chronicle, and The Times Union, publications also owned by Hearst Corporation.

But Alex’ title of “political editor” is questionable given his subjects. Matt Horn is not a politician, however, in Mr. Shultz’ post on Horn Barbecue called “Oakland’s Horn Barbecue faces money woes, unsafe work allegations”, Alex Shultz, the politcal writer, even offered a view on how Matt Horn should run his restaurant business, offering that he didn’t have enough employees for what he was doing, yet providing no evidence to back his claim.

And Madilynne Medina is the newly graduated-from-San-Jose-State-University news writer for SFGate.com and has been with the website for all of eight months. Her previous job was with The San José Spotlight, a non-profit news organization, for two months, and then the Stanford Cancer Institute before that.

The Hearst Corporation publications and editors did this in the middle of a crime investigation – a problem of vandalism pointed to by none other than Oakland District Three Councilmember Carroll Fife.

Moreover, SFGate web masters linked to past negative articles the made in an effort to boost the narrative that there’s something wrong with Horn Barbecue.

It’s a clear attempt to defame the character of a black man in business and right in the middle of a tragedy he is facing. None of the writers are African American.

What’s Behind SFGate.com’s Viciously Racist Take On Horn Barbecue?

Taken as a whole, the SFGATE / SF Chronicle coverage of Horn Barbecue is not just racist, it’s viciously racist. No other news organization has set out to take the position SFGate.com did with respect to Horn BBQ. One can’t act as if Horn BBQ Oakland is the only eatery that has had problems paying its employees post-pandemic. Who does this kind of reporting?

The Editor of SFGate.com is Grant Marek, a fellow graduate of the same University of California at Berkeley that this author obtained his Master’s Degree of City Planning at, and served on the California Alumni Board from 1998 to 2003. Why would Grant Marek green-light a racist take on a black man in business, and a popular one, at that? And, again, why would SFGate.com completely ignore the truth about the restaurant business in the middle of the Pandemic, let alone the shaky nature of the industry.

One example is the now closed Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe in Downtown Oakland. White-owned. The author here for Zennie62Media vlogged about what happened to it, and also that workers were fired and in a follow-up on Oakland News Online, this author reported the employees never got paid:

There are many other examples of these occurrences in Oakland and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Yet, SFGate.com acted as if Horn Barbecaue Oakland was the only organization that had a problem paying its people in Oakland’s history.

Why Did San Francisco Chronicle Avoid Mention Of Oakland’s Crime Problem?

Why did San Francisco Chronicle AKA SFGate.com’s Mr. Shultz and Ms. Medina completely ignore the giant rate of business closures in the East Bay? According to the East Bay Economic Development Alliance “More than 11,860 business locations in the East Bay have momentarily or permanently discontinued business activities between March 2020 and July 2021, according to an analysis of inactive business activity using data insights from business analytics company Dun & Bradstreet (D&B). In the first six months of the pandemic, over 5,400 businesses were closed, at an average rate of about 900 closures per month. The rate slightly declined in the last four months of 2020 at nearly 840 closures per month. The latest data available covering the six-month period between January through June 2021 showed a 40% reduction in the rate of closures, or 516 closures per month.”
– East Bay Economic Development Alliance

Why Did SFGate Ignore The Thanksgiving Eve Property Crime Wave Along Broadway?

Why didn’t SFGate report that on Wednesday, November 22, three restaurants and a retail shop were the businesses hit along Broadway in the Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood? Why didn’t SFGate take up KTVU Channel Two’s lead and report on the fact that Oakland businesses have been forced to close under this crime wave? And why didn’t SFGate even bother to make calls to Oakland City Councilmembers to ask what actions they were taking to stop these business property attacks?

Why didn’t Mr. Shultz and Ms. Medina report on the overall slow rate of post-pandemic recovery of the American restaurant industry? Why didn’t they focus on the plight of employees at Castle Pines, Colorado restaurant Berg Haus as a representative example of the flimsy nature of the restaurant industry during the Pandemic? It could have been presented as a way of at least being sympathetic to Horn Barbecue’s problems? Berg Haus employees in the Castle Pines, Colorado restaurant say they haven’t been paid since October, and are owed thousands of dollars.

Why didn’t SFGate.com focus on Horn Barbecue Oakland also show that businesses have not recovered since the Federal Government stopped the PPP Loan Program? Why not ask if Horn Barbecue and other restaurant businesses around the nation would have been helped by the maintenance of the PPP Loan program that was canceled late last year? And how can a publication in the San Francisco Bay Area write about business closure or revenue problem without mentioning the cost of housing and the high-level of rents?

SFGate.com Should Answer For Its Racist Coverage Of Horn Barbecue Oakland

Oaklanders and Blacks in Oakland, and in particular African American restaurant owners, need an answer to this racially-biased coverage on the part of the website of The San Francisco Chronicle.

Arguably, SFGATE / SF Chronicle coverage has seemingly justified the vandalism Horn Barbecue has suffered from by adding its own harmful dose of racist coverage. KTVU, KPIX, and websites like SFist, told the story of the apparent vandalism and fire done to Horn Barbecue.

Was the work the result of a client of Hearst Media Services, the digital marketing and reputation management arm of Hearst Corporation that uses Hearst Corporation writers and news websites like SFGate.com to do client jobs? And if so, who and why?

The good news is that Matt Horn has steered his eatery out of trouble, has paid or is in the process of paying the people that are owed, and should be applauded for doing so. But Hearst Corporation’s SFGate.com making what arguably is a fake news story out of Horn Barbecue’s plight is another example of the “Yellow Journalism” Hearst founder William Randolph Hearst was known for. Who’s paying them for the attacks on Matt Horn and Horn Barbecue? And why don’t they mention that Oakland Mayor Thao has done nothing?

Forbes Magazine’s Article About Matt Horn Pitmaster And Horn BBQ Shows The Way

Leave it to Forbes Magazine, a business-oriented publication, to tell the real true story of Pitmaster Horn BBQ and, as author Chelsea Davis put it: “In the worlds of hospitality and culinary excellence, few figures have made quite as much of a splash in the past few years as Matt Horn, the entrepreneurial force behind Horn Barbecue, and more recently Kowbird and Matty’s Old Fashioned.”

And quotes Chef Horn:

“Looking back, the journey from those initial days of commuting to Oakland, engaging in endless meetings with contractors, and pushing through every obstacle to open the restaurant, feels like a whirlwind adventure,” recalls Horn who opened the acclaimed Horn Barbecue amidst the pandemic. “It was a time marked by unprecedented challenges, with the hospitality sector being hit the hardest. Yet, our vision was clear: not only did we want to offer exceptional culinary experiences but also to serve as a beacon of hope and positivity for our community.”

This commitment to giving back, even during times of adversity, has been at the core of his and his team’s mission. He credits the enforced pause brought on by the pandemic as the catalyst of a period of deep reflection for himself, making way for dreams of expansion, branching out and “finding beauty, opportunity, and solace in the unexpected and uncharted,” he recalls.

The most recent testament to this notion happened just last month when Horn Barbecue was destroyed by a horrific fire, mere days after the establishment was vandalized. The very next day, Horn and his team handed out around 150 Thanksgiving turkeys, as they do each year, and remained positive and steadfast in their commitment to making the community a better place.
From: “The Journey Of Matt Horn: From Pitmaster To Community Advocate & Serial Entrepreneur” in Forbes

Horn Barbecue Matt Horn Bbq Czar Of Oakland

Forbes was sensitive to the traumatic situation the Horn’s have faced and wrote something that uplifted the couple. They had already been emotionally torn down by vandalism and fire. Enough was enough.

Horn Barbecue Is Number One In A List Of Best Barbecue In Oakland

With all of this fire and vandalism and racism it’s dealing with, Horn Barbecue is still the best BBQ in Oakland. But who else is on the list? Here’s the tally: