Employee of Arlington hardware store believes he was subjected to racist symbol
ARLINGTON (CBSNewsTexas.com) – A Black employee of an Arlington hardware store wonders whether he was subjected to a racist symbol while working on Juneteenth.
An investigation is underway, according to the store's management. The employee tells CBS News Texas that he's now fearful of his workplace.
This is what Devondrick Hartsfield says he was told to look at by a manager while they were walking on Monday through an area in the back of Van Marcke's Ace Hardware store in Arlington:
"Before we walked to the door, he told me to look up and I looked up, and when I looked back at him, he was like, 'It's a joke, Juan left his backpack,'" Hartsfield said.
It's a backpack hanging from the ceiling that Hartsfield says soon gave him a chill.
"And when I looked back up, I saw the noose with the rope and I was like, 'What the hell?'"
Hartsfield says he's been a delivery driver at the store for nearly four months and is the only Black employee he's aware of.
"I took it as a Black man being hung, dismembered. The bag to me looked to me like a Black man who was hung and dismembered," he said. "I really feel like that was a message."
CBS News Texas visited the store Tuesday during its scheduled business hours to ask about it, but found it closed and the doors locked without explanation.
The management posted a statement about the incident online which says in part,
"Van Marcke's Ace Hardware would like to assure you and the entire community that any allegations of racism; or any discrimination is being thoroughly investigated and addressed with the utmost urgency. We take such incidents seriously and are committed to creating a safe and inclusive environment for both our employees and customers."
Hartsfield says he was told the backpack was hung from the ceiling as a prank because another employee forgot it.
He questions that explanation and whether it was a coincidence that it happened on Juneteenth, which celebrates Black freedom.
"What's going on today in this world, Miss Opal Lee making [Juneteenth] a national holiday, you've heard this on the news, you've seen on the news, so there's no way to not know what Juneteenth was," he said. "I'm actually petrified to go back to work. This is something that's never happened to me. It's very serious."
Hartsfield says a supervisor at the store has apologized to him but he's contemplating whether to continue working there.
He says he's also contacted the local NAACP chapter and OSHA, asking both to investigate.