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Cracker Barrel has issued an apology after a customer at a Connecticut location spotted what appeared to be “nooses on the ceiling.”
The restaurant chain later clarified that the “noose” was just the wrapped cord that was attached to one of the location’s décor items, but said it was still “completely unacceptable” that employees failed to notice the resemblance before it was put on display.
Photos of the offending decoration, which was first noticed by a customer over the weekend, were later shared to Twitter by user Alfonso Robinson, accompanied by a caption reading, “Someone at Cracker Barrel in East Windsor need to explain why there are nooses on the ceiling...”
By that evening, Cracker Barrel responded, claiming the noose-like decoration was actually “an original wrapped cord” belonging to an “antique soldering iron” on display at the East Windsor restaurant.
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The restaurant added that the item had since been removed.
On Tuesday morning, activists arrived at the restaurant to discuss the matter with manager Mark Smith, Connecticut’s Journal Inquirer reported. A “positive” and “constructive” conversation followed, said PowerUp-Manchester founder Keren Prescott, according to the outlet.
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Smith said the noose-like cord had been on display for 22 years, but no one had ever noticed until last week. He also invited Prescott inside to look around the restaurant.
“At one point the manager said, ‘You might notice things that I don’t,’ which I really appreciated because as White man, he might not view certain things the same as a Black person would,” Prescott told the Journal Inquirer.
The manager of the East Windsor location said the decoration had been hanging for 22 years. (iStock)
To that end, some users on Twitter have called for Cracker Barrel to review the decorations at all of its locations, or announce a timeline for such a review.
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In a statement shared with Fox News on Wednesday morning, the restaurant chain reiterated that the item should have never been displayed in such a way.
"We work hard to create a culture of hospitality that’s welcoming, respectful and inclusive to everyone who walks through our doors. Some of the historic décor in our stores may be reminiscent of earlier times, but our inclusive culture is firmly grounded in today," the company wrote.
"As we previously said, the décor item in our East Windsor store – an antique soldering iron with an original wrapped cord – should have been noticed and corrected before ever being displayed, and it has since been removed. We are grateful to our guest who pointed it out to us so we could correct this mistake."
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