You might expect a smoothie to be pretty non-controversial, but then again, you probably haven't seen this Nazi-themed drink that popped up at a London cafe.
It all started on Nov. 16, when a Jewish woman visited East London's Nin Com Soup to find a fridge full of smoothies, according to the U.K.'s Campaign Against Antisemitism, whom the woman contacted after the incident. Though most of the drinks were labeled primarily with numbers, as is typical with drinks designed to be consumed in a particular order during a juice cleanse, one drink, called "Nutzy" and adorned with a prominent swastika, stuck out to her in a bad way. Here's what it looks like:
The woman told Campaign Against Antisemitism that she asked to speak to the manager about it, when everything went downhill:
He explained that it was an inverted swastika which was a Hindu symbol of health and prosperity, which is indeed right but the swastika was not inverted, and the Hindu sign includes dots within the symbol. When I asked about the name of the drink, he said it was a play on 'having the nuts', meaning 'having the courage' and was a pun as the drink contains nuts. I told him how offensive that was for certain people. He asked why I would find that so offensive, to which I responded that I lost my family to the Nazi regime and that despite the Hindu use of the symbol, this along with the name of the drink was extremely offensive. He said that London is a free city.
Though the drink ended up getting a swastika-free makeover, they stand by the product and its creator, barista John Jordan.
"The Swastika was originally a Hindu symbol and 'Nutzy' is something that has lots of layers," Jordan told the Sun. "I certainly have sympathy -- but I don't make any apology. It is something that was misunderstood. Of course, 'Nutzy' has a play on 'Nazi', but it can also be for 'nuts' or 'courageous'. It depends how it is interpreted."
The offended customer disagreed and pointed out that the combination of the drink's name combined with the swastika "is clearly not a coincidence."
"I left the shop almost in tears and shivering as it proved to me how much antisemitism and fascism is still utterly present," the woman said.
What do you think? Would you drink a Nazi-themed smoothie?