(CORRECTION: Both Lake Saint Louis police and management at the Popeyes store in question confirmed late Wednesday that no Popeyes employees were involved in placing the sign at the drive-thru and the incident is “believed to be a really bad prank.“)

As if we needed another example of the insanity wrought by the Black Lives Matter gang and their useful idiots in the Democrat Party and left-wing media, a criminal investigation is underway over a sign reportedly posted at a Popeyes in Missouri, announcing that the fast-food restaurant reserves the “right to refuse service to white people.”

A picture of the sign, which was posted in the restaurant’s drive-thru area, quickly spread on social media on Wednesday after local news reporter Russell Kinsaul posted it on his Facebook page.

The sign reads:

This restaurant is under new management and will reserve the right to refuse service to white people.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Signed, General Manager, Mason

Awww, the “apology” was a nice touch, don’t you think?

Police investigating sign found at US Popeyes drive-thru that said it would ‘reserve the right to refuse service to white people’ https://t.co/I40aUvW6QR

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) May 28, 2021

The sign was replaced with one that read: “Sorry For The Inconvenience. We’re Closed For The Day We Will Be Back Tomorrow.”

The restaurant was “forced to close on Wednesday due to the outcry,” according to The Blaze.

According to Fox affiliate KTVI-TV in St. Louis, Lake Saint Louis, police said in a statement they believe someone could have affixed the sign “unbeknownst to the business” and that the sign could be related to an act of vandalism at the store earlier this month.

“We are currently working and investigating a trespassing and possibly a related vandalism case which occurred at Popeyes located at 6475 Ronald Reagan Drive in Lake Saint Louis. Earlier this month, several drive-through menu signs were spray-painted. Today, unknown subjects posted an inappropriate sign on the drive-thru window, unbeknownst to the business.”

Popeyes said in a statement to KTVI:

“We have been made aware of the situation and are investigating the matter immediately. This type of behavior does not align with our brand values and we take such allegations very seriously. The franchise is cooperating with local authorities regarding this ongoing investigation.”

Setting aside who did what to whom — first, last, or in between — and what color anyone involved might be, there is a larger issue at play here:

Would this incident have occurred if all of us were not subjected to more than a year of incessant racial rhetoric — racial rhetoric specifically designed to instill distrust, fear, anger, and division between white America and black America? 

I cannot answer that question — but I do have an opinion.

Coincidentally, during a discussion with a colleague earlier this week about the racial insanity now engulfing this country, he said he sometimes wonders when he interacts with a black person for the first time what he or she is thinking about him as they meet.

“Does he or she wonder if I’m a racist”? “Is he or she an adherent of the Black Lives Matter movement”? “Is he or she ‘role-playing’ — pretending to ‘like me’ but in reality resenting me based solely on the color of my skin?”

I believe the above scenario plays out daily across America. Among white people and black people who little more than a year ago would’ve entertained no such thoughts. Here’s one example of the rush to judgment — **strong language** — about the Popeyes incident.

Boycott Popeyes! Fuck those racist bastards that's a St Louis Popeyes is refusing to serve white people talk about asking for a lawsuit! If a white person refuses blacks they're racist and Nazis talk about double standards! Forcing segregation will start chaos! FUCK POPEYES!!!

— Frank Milarski (@FMilarski1974) May 28, 2021

Black Lives Matter Marxist indoctrination, the insanity of “critical race theory,” and the drumbeat of racial rhetoric from the useful idiots — the Democrat Party and its liberal media sock puppets — are as guilty, if not more so, than the BLM Marxists themselves.