On Nov. 28, the popular downtown restaurant, Loose Change, put out a sign advertising their new Tijuana Chicken “Sanderwich” and made posts on several social media accounts advertising the sandwich. The description of the sandwich was blatantly racist and quickly received backlash.
“Tijuana Chicken Sanderwich,” the sign read. “Big enough to feed a caravan. Built High with smoked chicken, lettuce, tomato, pepperjack, bacon + guac. Bordered with a side of pub chips. So good, it should be illegal.”
The problems with this description begin with the fragmented sentences and comma splices, and they only begin to end with the offensive, ridiculously racist comments and the healthy dose of white privilege it displays. The fact that words such as “feed a caravan,” “built high,” “bordered” and “illegal” were written in different colors or underlined makes the sign even more cruel.
On Nov. 29, less than a day later, the posts containing the description were deleted and two apology posts were put in their places.
“We apologize for our sign yesterday,” the first post said. “Apparently we offended a group of people with our sandwich description yesterday. Our description was intended to increase awareness about the situation in Tijuana.”
…Okay, Loose Change. It’s nice to know that, “apparently,” you offended some people. Thanks for trying to increase awareness, I guess.
“World wide Bar Rules:,” the second post said. “No speak of age, politics or religion in the bar. We broke one those rules yesterday and we sincerely apologize for offending any and everyone. We will choose our words more carefully going forward.”
The response to these posts mainly consisted of links and tips for how businesses and official accounts can construct apologies, seeing as how these attempts left much to be desired and avidly worked to make the offensiveness of the sign the fault of the people it targeted rather than the people who created it. After all, if people say harsh, hurtful things, it’s clearly not their fault that people are offended by such things.
Apparently, Loose Change realized that their apology fell a bit short, and subsequently replaced those two posts with this final message:
“We are truly sorry for offensive sign yesterday,” the tweet said. “It is my hope that people may understand my staff and I are truly good and compassionate people. I made a bad decision for which I will have to live with. Thank you for your time and we are truly sorry for the offensive sign.”
While this seems like a sincerer attempt, the post is still far from perfect.
To put it bluntly, apologies don’t fix everything, especially when the apology focuses on the wrongdoer and how they might be impacted by what they have done and how people have reacted. They should not play the victim and speak of living with their “bad decision” when the people they insulted face this type of racism and harm on a daily basis. It takes attention away from the true problem and, as always, focuses on the plights of those who have merely received a slap on the wrist when disrespecting another human being.
I’m sure the people at Loose Change have some lovely personalities and care deeply about their customers. But apologies are quite literally the least they could do, especially when said apologies consist of blundering attempts and further offenses.
Loose Change, do you want to truly show that you care about people other than the middle-class, privileged white personages that make up the majority of your customers? Then take the money your Tijuana Chicken “Sanderwiches” made and support the people in Tijuana with that money. Realize that the world doesn’t consist of only well-off, college-aged people and donate to refugees and struggling families who you attacked with your sign. After all, actions speak louder than words, and your words so far have spoken quite loudly.
