The owner of a fruit store in Brisbane has apologised for posting a drawing of gradually ripening avocados and labelling the overripe ones 'Abocados'.
Owner Johnny Tabet said in a post on Instagram and Facebook that it was not intended as a reference to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, but was a "mistake".
"There is no way we would ever, EVER put up a racist joke," he said.
"We are not trying to cover up or hide anything. Racism is unacceptable! This was never meant to be a joke about the wonderful original owners of this land but a joke about how quickly avocados turn black."
According to the store, the sentence would have been: 'Love our Avocados... hate our Avocados'. But many have rejected the claim that 'Abocados' was unintentional.
While some of those commenting on the , which was posted to the shop's Facebook page on Sunday, debated whether it could have been a genuine 'v' to 'b' keyboard error and whether autocorrect functions would have picked it up, many more did not accept it was a mistake.
A screenshot of the now deleted post was published by Blackfulla Revolution. Source: Facebook
"This is a poor excuse for blatant racism and you are doing your customers a disservice by not admitting your error," one Facebook user said.
"Free avocados for any Aboriginal person who comes into your shitty store...?"
Another was overwhelmed by the response by non-Indigenous Australians, "thank you for showing someone that enough is enough", she wrote.
"Not buying it - literally," someone else wrote. "This wasn't a typo and the apology is hollow."
