A white owner of one of the area’s consortium of funeral homes is under fire for comments that he allegedly made on social media about Afro-Americans. Kenneth Griffin, owner and operator of Griffin Funeral Home located in Monroe/West Monroe allegedly wrote comments saying, “you blacks never did anything positive for the country. We wouldn’t expect your kind to get it”. According to sources, when confronted over the message, Griffin did not explicitly deny that he wrote the words. Sources also said that Griffin allegedly refused to delete the words when asked if the words would remain on his account. But when a group of black funeral directors heard of what Griffin allegedly wrote, they directed their “anger and disappointment” towards him. According to sources, Griffin said that his account/page “has been hacked”, and he “had nothing” to do with the comments. Those funeral directors associated in the group that asked Griffin to explain what was going on, while wanting to know if he would make an public apology. Griffin’s alleged response was that, he “would personally” call all of the black funeral directors/owners, and “explain” what had happened. That is to say, that he was hacked.

According to sources, the page/account was not immediately taken down or deleted, as the owner can take action on his/her own to remove any posts that they don’t want to be seen. Griffin allegedly didn’t do that. But as far as some of the funeral home directors/owners are concern, the damage has already been done. But even more troubling to those black funeral home directors/owners, is that Griffin Funeral Homes serves the public, both black and white people. They are upset because they had particularly good business relations with Griffin. A portion of black business has gone to Griffin Funeral Home through “pre-arrangement” policies and because some black customers make use of a crematorium that Griffin possesses . The black funeral homes in the area does not have a crematorium. But no one saw this coming, as the words “you blacks” and “your kind”, has been very troubling for the black funeral home directors/owners. Now that the comments allegedly made by the owner has surfaced, black customers present and future may think twice before giving their money to an individual who seems to hold the whole black race as being worthless. His alleged words, “you blacks never did anything positive for the country”, needs to be explained to a community that trusted him with the care of their loved ones, at a time when the issue of race should not matter. We still have a ways to go.