A Mexican-themed bar and restaurant in Sydney has come under fire after a customer spotted a racist, antique figurine on the premises.
Cantina Bar, a restaurant located in the trendy, affluent neighbourhood of Balmain, has been named-and-shamed in a viral video on TikTok for displaying the figurine at the register, with a derogatory and racist phrase clearly emblazoned on it.
A customer, who goes by the username @fkmgmt on TikTok, shared footage of the figurine to the platform on Monday, quickly racking up millions of views.
"Get this removed from Cantina Bar Balmain, Sydney," the video, which has been viewed almost three million times at the time of writing, is captioned.
In the video, the woman films the antique in question - a money bank designed to resemble a caricature of a Black person with the hand outstretched. On the back of the money bank are the words "jolly n****r bank".
"Do you think this should be left out if it has the N word on it?" the customer can be heard asking staff in the clip.
She added she had asked the staff if they could remove the offensive ornament, but claimed she was told that the owner "loves it".
"The bar staff are lovely but they couldn't remove it because the owner loves it and doesn't want them to touch it," she explained.
Since the footage of the figurine emerged on social media, the bar has been inundated with negative, one-star reviews on Google, including one who wrote on Tuesday: "Owner displays racist 'memorabilia' in the bar. So outdated and shows ignorance and arrogance. Disgusting way to make your patrons feel."
Despite the clip prompting widespread outrage, a number of viewers have defended the owner's decision to display the figurine, arguing that removing it would be akin to "erasing" a part of history.
"I collect antiques and had one from years ago, [to] be honest I don't feel comfy with it, horrible words," one commented, with a second adding: "It could always break 'by accident'."
"You should've just taken it and thrown it away," another weighed in, with a fourth agreeing: "Y'all should [have] just 'accidentally' knocked it over."
However, many argued that the artefact was valuable and historically important, while others said it was up to the owner to display whatever they wanted in their own premises.
"Erase the past will we?" one commented, to which a second echoed: "Erase history and it will only be repeated. It should be displayed with a plaque explaining it but you can't hide history."
"How much? I collect them," another wrote, with a fourth chipping in: "I would like to purchase that."
"It's his bar, if you don't like something in it, then leave," another declared.
In a statement to the NCA NewsWire, a spokesperson for the bar confirmed the figurine has since been removed from the establishment.
"It never is our intention to offend any of the community," the spokesperson said, as quoted by news.com.au. "I sincerely apologise if it has harmed the community by placing this particular decoration in the venue."
The owners, who reportedly began running the bar in 2016, said the money bank was an asset that came with the change of ownership.
"We all simply thought that it [was] just an antique decoration," the spokesperson said. "It would have never been displayed if we knew the history behind it.
"Our background are all migrants from Asia and [we] have just learned the history that is related to these kind of items.
"I can confirm that this racist antique has now been removed and destroyed."