NOT FUNNY

Black Hardware Store Employee Finds Noose on Juneteenth

Devondrick Hartsfield said his manager claimed the rope hanging from the ceiling was just a “joke.”

A hardware store in Texas has launched an investigation after the business’ only Black employee claimed he was tormented by a racist joke on Juneteenth. Devondrick Hartsfield, who had only been working at Ace Hardware in Arlington for four months, said he saw a backpack hanging from the ceiling along with a noose and rope after his manager told him to look up while he was at the back of the store. Hartsfield said the manager told him it was a joke and that one of the other employees left his backpack at the store. “I took it as a Black man being hung, dismembered,” Hartsfield said. “The bag... looked to me like a Black man who was hung and dismembered. I really feel like that was a message.” Hartsfield said a supervisor apologized but now he’s wondering if he wants to continue working at the store.