Hot on the heels of Ohio’s swastika-topped pizza, food has emerged yet again as a malleable medium for constructing symbols seen by many as hateful regardless of individual intent.
Workers at a Jimmy John’s in Georgia have been dismissed after video emerged on social media over the weekend of them playing with a “noose” made out of bread dough.
The 16-second clip posted Sunday to Twitter shows an employee at a branch of the fast food sandwich chain in Woodstock holding the noose as another puts his head into it. A third employee stands nearby recording the incident on his phone while a fourth – presumably the person filming the posted video – is heard laughing throughout.
The footage, originally shared on Snapchat, also has a “Happy 4th of July” filter.
In a statement released Monday, Jimmy John’s said all of the employees involved in producing the video had been fired.
“The actions seen in the video are absolutely unacceptable and do not represent the Jimmy John’s brand or the local franchise ownership team,” the statement read. “As soon as we were alerted to the video, we notified our franchisee, who quickly investigated and terminated all employees involved.”
The company also promised that other workers at the store would receive training to “help prevent anything like this” from occurring again.
In all, four employees lost their jobs over the incident, the Macon Telegraph reports.
The company’s apology has done little to mollify many customers, some of whom said they would never eat there again.
“We were frequent customers, but will never spend another dollar at your store,” one customer wrote on Jimmy John’s Facebook page. “The hateful and racist behavior of your employees is so shameful.”
“You have lost my business FOREVER,” a Twitter user wrote. “There’s not one damn thing you can do to atone for this. Not one.”
While many view the noose as an unambiguous hate symbol exclusively bringing to mind the nation’s history of racial lynchings, some social media users pointed to its other cultural associations – including the Pirates of the Caribbean hanging scene and the execution of the notorious English highwayman Dick Turpin.