Posted on 10/12/2007 6:04:25 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3
Owner Says Racially Offensive Clothing Was Confiscated:
PITTSBURGH -- A North Side deli owner faces customer criticism after an employee wore a racially offensive T-shirt.
An African-American woman was shocked to see a clerk at the North Shore Deli on East Ohio Street wearing a shirt that depicted blacks hanging from nooses.
Community activist, Paradise Gray, said the clerk, a 20-year-old white male, refused to answer questions about the shirt.
"It's extremely insensitive to wear that shirt without being able to represent what it means to you, yourself and if someone is offended and they tell you, 'Hey, what's that about,' and you don't know how to verbalize it, you shouldn’t be wearing it," said Gray.
The deli owner told Gray the shirt had been confiscated.
There have been multiple racially offensive incidents in the Pittsburgh region this month.
A worker at a construction site in O'Hara Township found a noose in his work area. A Verizon worker from Butler County said someone left a noose around a doll's neck with a note saying she didn't deserve a promotion. A doll bearing a racial slur was found hanging in the hallway of the Port Authority's East Liberty garage.
Police continue to investigate all of the incidents.
Statement From Karl Mattern, Owner Of North Shore Deli: "The T-shirt was misread and misinterpreted. The T-shirt says ‘Masakari’ not ‘Massacre'. Masakari is the name of a punk rock band and is also the name of a Japanese sword. The person who started this did not have all the facts of the T-shirt and as a result, the reputation of my business has been jeopardized. This is affecting my livelihood and the means of supporting my family. The North Shore Deli has been in my family in the North Side community for the past 25 years. Everyone who has patronized my business has never been disrespected, mistreated or categorized."
Tonight on Channel 11 News, why the T-shirt designer came up with the controversial shirts.
I have a noose around my neck every time I wear a tie and I’m the only one who complains.
There is no news like Noose News.
I will start a punk rock band called “Winnie in South AfriKKKa” and the logo will be a burning tire around a person’s neck. Will anyone be offended by that?
No noose is good noose.
Probably not.
You know if you let an employee wear a T-shirt with any person hanging from nooses, you probably are a piss poor owner and deserve to lose customers.
The fact the person who was offended misread the shirt doesn't take away from the fact the T-shirt was really stupid and should offend any normal person walking into a retail business
I try not to buy into racial hysteria, but I don’t necessarily find this woman to be wrong in this instance. I’m not black, but I’d have a problem with a shirt that depicted blacks with nooses around their necks. Seems to me a group may have decided to develop a controversial shirt to gain attention. If that is true, I don’t care for it at all.
Quite frankly, I can’t imagine someone wearing a shirt like that in public, much less at work. I wouldn’t want a fight magnet like that within 100 yards of me.
If the shirt was festooned with pictures of blacks in nooses the word at top isn't really the issue.
"I have confiscated the T-shirt, and my employee has assured me that tomorrow he will wear his "Kill President Gorge Bush" instead. Surely nobody can have a problem with that unambiguous message."
Yes, I agree completely. And another thing occurs to me, why would the owner or his boss allow him to wear it? I’d have told the kid to go home and change and never show up in a shirt like that again.
Surely the owner was a fool for allowing the employee to wear anything other than professional-looking attire: clean shirt, clean trousers, tidy appearance.
What the tee-shirt has on it is not overly relevant: unless it was the store’s own livery, it should say nothing on it. Not “AC/DC”, not “Don’t Worry Be Happy”. It shouldn’t have a photo of Her Majesty the Queen, or Barney the Purple Dinosaur, or a pile of dog doo, or pictures of anyone suspended from a noose. No messages, no pictures, nothing to distract from the store.
If this moron store clerk wants to offend blacks (and cop all the flak and consequences that go along with that) — fine. But not in the store.
I bet that store owner issued a dress code pretty soon afterward. If he didn’t he is a moron.
I have one around my neck every April 15-that and my sack in a vice.
Not many would be offended by that, since not many people are familiar with the lovely practice of "necklacing."
Although if the tire is around a black person's neck, that part would be offensive to the race baiters.
ironically there’s a famous black female artist
who makes silhouettes depicting blacks being brutalized by
white plantation culture.
today’s nyt has a feature story.
one silhouette depicts a sword thru’ a black child.
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