Customers are 'utterly disgusted' by bar's Halloween display seemingly representing a lynching
A Pennsylvania bar came under fire this week for a Halloween display showing a mask hanging from a noose, which the bar owner claims isn’t racist. The decoration apparently wasn’t taken down immediately after Halloween.
Kickstand Bar and Restaurant in Elizabeth seems to have deactivated its Facebook page, but bar owner Skip Riggle told CBS Pittsburgh that the mask (which he described as red) came with the noose at Party City, where he said he bought it. Yahoo Lifestyle has reached out to the Party City company for comment.
“It’s a devil mask,” Riggle said. “We hung it up with our Halloween decorations, and we took them down.”
Ashlyn Brierre, who put the bar on blast on Twitter, saw it differently.
“According to them it represents the devil,” she wrote. “According to me it’s racist.”
There is a bar in Elizabeth, PA called Kickstand. They currently have a noose hanging up with a black person mask in it. According to them it represents the devil. According to me it’s racism. Photo attached. # of the bar is 412-384-3080 ?? pic.twitter.com/tYPkH42l8Q
— Ashlyn🌹 (@ashlynbrierre) November 9, 2018
Jasmine Mull, who goes by Bella BaeBee on Facebook, stormed out of the bar when she saw the display. She called it “absolutely disgusting” in a video she took at Kickstand and posted to Facebook on Wednesday.
“I don’t think anybody should accept that symbol — white, black, Chinese, African, Asian,” Mull told CBS. “I don’t accept it. I don’t think anybody should accept it.”
Commenters pointed out that the mask allegedly representing the devil didn’t have any horns, but others thought Mull was overreacting to a Halloween display.
“Idgaf what it is a devil or person! The noose is offensive as hell!,” one person wrote.
“You deserve no apology, and you’re probably going to be sued,” another wrote.
Still, Mull demanded an apology from the bar.
“Honestly, I would just like their input on it,” she told the CBS affiliate. “Why do they have it there?”
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