A restaurant in Rhode Island apologized after posting a meme of Anne Frank to compare the summer heat to that of an “oven.”
The post from the official Atlantic Sports Bar & Restaurant Facebook account sparked serious backlash, with many lambasting the company for mocking the death of a Holocaust victim. While the post was removed, screenshots can still be seen floating around. The website Stop Antisemitism shared the post on Twitter, along with a local news story about the ill-fated marketing decision.
A Rhode Island restaurant decided it was a good idea to post a meme referencing Anne Frank and it being “hotter than an oven out there”.
We have no words.https://t.co/nxIkaPqD71 pic.twitter.com/oKVZyvMgab
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) July 25, 2022
On Monday, the restaurant posted an apology on its Facebook page.
“The team here at The Atlantic wants to issue it’s [sic] sincerest apologies for a deeply insensitive post shared by our account on 7/22. The post was poorly thought out and we realize that it was incredibly inappropriate and does not reflect our values as members of our community,” the mea culpa read. “There is no excuse for the sharing of this post, and there is nothing we can do to rectify it, all we can do now is offer our deepest apology to those who were rightfully hurt by our actions.”
Naturally, the next step of the apology was to tout how “inclusive” and “tolerant” their restaurant is.
“The Atlantic Restaurant prides itself on being a tolerant, inclusive and safe space for all people. We love and respect all of our incredible customers and members of our larger community, irrespective of their religion, race, creed, sexuality or gender identity,” the apology continued. “Moving forward we will be vigilant in vetting all social media posts to ensure that nothing like the events of this past week ever happen again.”
“We appreciate the outpouring of support, as well as the outpouring of rightful criticism, this will certainly be a teachable moment for our team. Thank you again for allowing us to serve our community, doing what we love – we hope that with time we can regain the trust of those who we’ve hurt and move forward, as a better, stronger and more sensitive organization,” the post concluded.
But not everyone was buying it:
I believe the owner himself posted it. The apology was a fake and hollow one.
— Dork E Smith🌹 (@GlamRatchet) July 26, 2022
The apology is B.S. I do not believe for a second that whoever put this up did not know how offensive it was.
— allan manela (@AllanManela) July 26, 2022
Best response I’ve seen to this. People who think jokes like this are funny typically don’t have any understanding of the atrocities that were committed; they haven’t watched the footage of literal mountains of bodies in mass graves; they’ve never read Anne Franks journal
— A.L.F 💀🕸 (@itsaliblack) July 27, 2022
Business name-Atlantic Sports bar in Toverton RI Hope the place goes out of business.
— karenb (@lorax819) July 25, 2022
No, what? That can’t be real …
I can’t believe I didn’t read the words “The person responsible for this has been fired”
— Squiddy McCephalopod (@squiddy61) July 26, 2022
No, what? That can’t be real …
I can’t believe I didn’t read the words “The person responsible for this has been fired”
— Squiddy McCephalopod (@squiddy61) July 26, 2022
The owner states “he didn’t know anything about who Anne Frank was,” what did he find so funny about a black and white meme of a young girl smiling and comparing the heat outside to that of an oven? What’s his reference point of humor? Apology not accepted.
— (((DonnaZimmerman))) (@donna_zimmerman) July 26, 2022
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
- ‘A bad and dangerous precedent’: Columbine survivor discusses sentencing of school shooter’s parents - April 11, 2024
- Rolling Stone reports RFK Jr’s ‘number one priority’ is to take votes from Joe Biden - April 10, 2024
- ‘Star Wars’ icon Billy Dee Williams shuns ‘victimhood,’ defends blackface: ‘If you’re an actor you should be able to do anything you want’ - April 9, 2024
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.