A restaurant has come under fire after making an insensitive joke about a disabled woman.
Seddon Deadly Sins is a small café that sparked outrage after sharing a handwritten joke outside their business in Melbourne, Australia.
“My girlfriend broke up with me, so I stole her wheelchair. Guess who came crawling back,” the sign read.
While some people found the joke to be funny, others quickly took photos of the sign and blasted the restaurant on social media.
“Your humor can be utterly wrong without demeaning people. Going for the cheap shot is just that – Cheap. And nasty,” someone wrote.
“Any café that thinks jokes about abuse and violence and against disabled people is NOT a community café worth supporting,” another said.
Meanwhile, feminist Clementine Ford accused the business of joking about domestic violence.
“It’s absolutely appalling and totally ignorant. Women with disabilities are exponentially more exposed to abuse and subject to it by their partners. This is not a silly pun. This is explicitly a joke about domestic violence,” she wrote on Facebook.
While plenty of people slammed the ‘rude’ joke, many ran to the café’s defense amid the backlash.
“Your blackboard made me laugh. It also treated people the same way as everyone else which is what we’re always hearing about – ‘They just want to be treated to same way as everyone else…’ Isn’t that how it goes?” someone argued.
“The fact that you felt you needed to apologize to a bunch of humorless bleeding hearts is sad, so I’m posting your photo here – and I won’t be apologizing to anyone!
“P.S. The only thing wrong with your sign was the lack of a ‘question mark’ at the end of the last sentence.”
Following a major backlash on social media, the Seddon Deadly Sins apologized saying they were “ashamed” of their “ignorance.”
“Today I made the mistake of making light of something that I had not considered was a brutal reality for some people,” the owners wrote on the restaurant’s Facebook page.
“Colleen Hartland shared a report with me that highlighted domestic violence against people with disabilities. I’m ashamed that it took this for me to learn about this abuse.
“I apologize for my ignorance and any offence that it has caused. Regardless of the original intent, I should have known better.”
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