You may have already heard about this display of antisemitism that really turns the stomach:
A Tiverton restaurant apologized Monday after an anti-Semitic meme was posted on their Facebook page over the weekend.
Atlantic Sports Bar and Restaurant issued the apology following a post shared Sunday that featured a meme of Anne Frank, making reference to the hot weather in an insensitive manner.
The initial post received much backlash and criticism.
The restaurant has since removed the post and issued an apology, saying in part that “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.”
“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. The Atlantic Restaurant prides itself on being a tolerant, inclusive and safe space for all people,” added the restaurant.
Moving forward, the Atlantic Sports Bar and Restaurant said it 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,” said the restaurant.
ABC 6 News spoke with one of the restaurant workers, who claimed the person who posted it did not know who Anne Frank was, and quickly deleted the meme once told. Of course, this reeks of B.S. What are the chances of them not knowing who Anne Frank was and coincidentally making an oven joke?
It turns out, one of the owners posted the meme, claiming he found it after Googling funny memes:
Messias Dias, owner of Atlantic Sports Bar and Restaurant, also posted an apology on his personal Facebook page. WBSM obtained screen shots of his post, which was set to “friends only” in Facebook privacy settings, and he takes the blame for being the one who found and posted the meme.
“On behalf of myself, I would like to sincerely apologize for the distasteful meme I posted on our Facebook Business page. No excuses should be made, but I must speak on my behalf. I didn’t know, I honestly didn’t know. I am aware that EVERYONE knows who Anne Frank is, but I did not finish school and was working at age 13, so I did not recognize her as I posted the meme about being hot as an oven. Call me stupid or uneducated, but please don’t call me anti-Semitic. I am none of those. I am just someone who googled funny memes and picked the wrong one. As soon as I was made aware, I immediately took it down. I had no idea my mistake would cause so much harm, that was not my intention at all.”
“The restaurant did receive calls on Friday night to discuss this further. The hostess did not know anything about this post as she was receiving many calls for reservations and take out orders. When I was given the phone, we had a full dining room with sweating guests as our air conditioner stopped working. I handled the call unprofessionally, no doubt, and for that I apologize as well. We here at Atlantic Sports Bar and Restaurant accept everyone and try to be the best we can be to our customers. Friends and family co-workers I am deeply sorry!”
The last part of his post is referring to this phone call:
WBSM talk show host Jessica Machado, who has children of Jewish descent, saw the post on Facebook and called the restaurant asking for an explanation. She recounted what happened on Saturday’s edition of The Jessica Machado Show.
“I picked up the phone and I called, and said I wanted to speak with someone about a Facebook post,” Machado said. “The girl that answered said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, what post?’ I explained it and she said she didn’t get it, and I said, ‘OK, did you post it?’ and she said no. So I asked if I could talk to the person that did and she hung up on me.”
Machado called back again.
“I then spoke with the owner, who was equally as annoyed with me,” Machado said. “He doubled down on it and said he had just Googled it, he thought it was funny, and that they were very, very busy and it was very hot there, and that they didn’t have time to deal with my concerns or questions. He told me not to call them back and then, click, they hung up.”
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WBSM called Atlantic on Saturday afternoon and asked to speak to the owner. We were told that he wasn’t in and the best way to contact him was via email. We sent an email inquiring about the meme and the decision both to post it and take it down. After receiving no response, we sent another email on Sunday afternoon.
These do not sound like the words of a truly contrite person.
What I believe happened is Dias knew exactly who Anne Frank was. He thought the theme was funny, and believed so would his customers. She is fair game these days, after all. He was not expecting the negative response. But after receiving a huge backlash and the incident became news, he decided he better apologize in order to mitigate damage to his business.
Meanwhile, this is from one of the restaurant’s supporters
“Let me tell you about these incredibly kind, tolerant and hard working people for a minute. They fly Pride flags outside of their establishment year round, they’ve had an advertised gender neutral bathroom since well before it was trendy. They pride themselves on giving second chances to addicts and ex-criminals, to the point where they actively seek them out in their hiring process…They regularly donate food and time to community organizations and never look for a single second of praise or social media attention for doing so. During COVID they were out here, hemorrhaging money to keep people employed while they gave out frozen food and toilet paper to folks in need.”
Unfortunately, this could all be true. Some of the worst antisemitism these days comes from those who otherwise see themselves as “human rights” advocates and tick so many of the Woke boxes.
