Nandos has been savaged over a painting in one of its restaurants depicting four black people in a toaster. The painting at a Nandos i...
Nandos has been savaged over a painting in one of its
restaurants depicting four black people in a toaster.
The painting at a Nandos in Birmingham, UK depicts four
black people in tatty clothing standing inside a toaster.
A black customer was appalled and said the painting
dehumanised black people and directly messaged Nando's UK CEO Colin Hill on
LinkedIn.
Mr Hill apologised for the painting, and confirmed it had
been taken down from the wall in the branch in Perry Barr.
But the customer has criticised Mr Hill's response as
'standard' and has accused him of 'failing to take this serious issue
seriously'.
'It shows four people of colour who would have been
historically subject to degradation and hardship in an implement - here, a
toaster - used to cook or burn bread. To me, it's akin to hanging a picture of
someone in an oven or being chopped up. It's completely dehumanising people of
colour.
'If it's an apartheid era piece of work, it is shocking
they would hang it in a South African-style food chain. It's an absolute
disgrace that in this day and age, a painting like that can appear in as
popular a food chain in modern Britain as Nando's.
'As a black man, I think this is completely unacceptable,
weird, and deeply offensive.
'It's one thing taking it down, but it's another thing to
make it clear to shocked customers that they won't make similar oversights in
future again.
'I don't feel like his [Colin Hill's] response was
reassuring. To me it felt quite distant, quite stock - a typical standard note
of apology.
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