Sydney Burger joint accused of racism after Australia Day Facebook post
A Penrith restaurant has been slammed for a “racist” post on its Facebook page on Australia Day and have been forced to explain.
The Downtown Brooklyn Penrith was advertising their fairy bread burger on a Facebook post, however wrote within the post: “364 more sleeps ‘til we have to listen to the Invasion Day bandwagoners again”, referring to the Australia Day protests that were calling for a change of date.
Member for Lindsay, Emma Husar, wrote on Facebook the post was “racist”, “disappointing” and “stupid”.
“Western Sydney is home to the largest numbers of First Nations people in a metro setting,” Ms Husar wrote.
The owner of the restaurant, Chris O’Shea took to Facebook to explain the post saying his social media team “like to push the boundaries when it comes to their marketing”.
He wrote his social media team was attempting to poke fun at social media influencers “and how they love to jump on bandwagons” to get likes but forget about “the true cause”.
“Unfortunately they may have pushed the boundaries a bit too far this time with some of the comments made.
O’Shea believes the comment was “misconstrued” as being racist saying that was not the intent.
“The damage is done, there is no coming back from this and as the owner I have accepted this.
“To the entire Indigenous community that has been offended in regards, please take this as my sincerest apologies as to how the post was construed.”
However, people aren’t buying the apology with one person calling it a “putrid attempt at rectifying the situation” and another writing “you won’t last long in this town”.
The post has since been deleted.
Irit Jackson, 2nd February 2021
