A former hostess at an Arizona Cracker Barrel says the restaurant used a “code word” to refer to Black people, Newsweek reports. The former Cracker Barrel employee shared the news on TikTok, in a video that’s been viewed over 260,000 times.
In the 15-second video, TikToker @cinnamnhoney, said while she worked at Cracker Barrel, she’d often wonder how her coworkers would be able to identify a table of “Canadians” even if they didn’t have an accent. A few seconds later, she revealed that “Canadians” was actually a code word for Black people.
“A waitress used to complain SO MUCH if i sat ‘canadians’ in her section & i was so confused bc i thought canadians were stereotyped as nice,” @cinnamnhoney, who’s name appears to be Kimmie, wrote in the caption of her TikTok post.
The video’s comments were filled with users sharing similar experiences while working in the service industry.
“I had an old co-worker come and ask me if I saw the gang outside, it was a black family… ‘any group of 3 or more of them is a gang!’ he told me,” one user wrote.
“Absolutely ridiculous I remember this as a host. As well as “NIMS”. N words in my section. Some people don’t deserve even basic and common decency,” another person added.
Some people even said that the word “Canadian” is a common code for Black people in businesses.
“This happened to me too but at a water park I was a lifeguarding! I had NO idea,” Newsweek reports one user wrote.
They continued, saying, “The other lifeguards were saying ‘yeah I had to jump in after a Canadian.’ ‘Canadians can’t swim.’ And I said how do you know they’re Canadian.”
Cracker Barrel responded to the allegation, telling Newsweek that though they were unaware of the video at first, they would be “looking into the matter further.”
“We only recently learned about this video and have not had a chance to identify or speak with the relevant individuals. Obviously, racism has no place at Cracker Barrel and any actions like the ones described in the video would be against our policies, beliefs and who we are as a company,” a representative for Cracker Barrel said, according to Newsweek.