Montana bar owner faces backlash after ‘ch*nk flu’ comment, says she’s ‘not racist at all’

September 8, 2022

Years after writing an anti-Asian comment on Facebook, a bar owner in the small town of McLeod, Montana, has doubled down against critics and insisted that she is not racist.

Holly Tinch, who runs Holly’s Road Kill Saloon, referred to COVID-19 as the “ch*nk flu” at the beginning of the pandemic. While she has since faced backlash for using the term, she stands by it nearly three years later.

“I’m not a racist person at all. And if you think that I am, that’s your problem not mine,” Tinch told MTN News in a new interview.

Chris Girardot, who lives in nearby Billings, is among those offended by Tinch’s remarks. He was adopted from South Korea as a baby.

“You wouldn’t tell somebody, a victim of a crime, oh get over it, it was three years ago,” Girardot told MTN News. “You can see that I’m of Asian descent. And I’ve been in fights in high school because I was the only brown kid. So, yes, I took offense to that.”

Girardot, like others, retaliated by leaving negative reviews for the bar on Facebook, Google or Yelp. He said Tinch then tried to retaliate by posting his phone number “to get people to harass me,” though it was not actually his number. At the time of this writing, Yelp has suspended the ability to leave new reviews for the business.

Twitter users also slammed Tinch for her language.

“According to this bar owner, it’s not racist to call COVID the ‘ch*nk flu.’ Sorry, Holly Tinch of Holly’s Road Kill Saloon in McLeod, Montana, but it is. You’re a racist and a doxxer,” one wrote.

Another commented, “‘I’m not a racist’ is almost invariably said by someone who is a racist.”

“If you say you’re not a racist but use racist names for people, then you ARE A RACIST! PERIOD,” another noted.

Tinch, on the other hand, said most people are not upset by her words. The only problem she deals with, according to her, are those trying to bring their kids into her business after she had it restricted to age 21 and above.

Tinch has also posted a warning sign that says her bar “does not play well with liberals.” She told MTN News she will “stand by my First Amendment and my Second Amendment and the rest of them.”

“You want to call me an Irish name, have at it. Ask me if I care, I don’t,” she said.

Featured Image via KTVQ

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