White-Owned Harlem Bagel Shop Faces Backlash Over ‘Blackface Bagel’ Mascot

Bo’s Bagels removed its controversial mascot after critics called it racist

A Harlem bagel shop has removed its cartoon mascot after accusations that the artwork resembled racist stereotypes sparked backlash online.

Bo’s Bagels, a white-owned eatery located on West 116th Street in New York City, displayed a life-size cardboard cutout of a cartoon bagel wearing sunglasses, gold grills with the words “Harlem World,” and a gold ring marked “NYC.” The sign also doubled as a chalkboard advertising the business.

The controversy began last week when Harlem-based photographer Carl Broady criticized the mascot in an Instagram post, describing it as a “disrespectful caricature of black people,” reports The New York Post. Broady argued that its exaggerated facial features, prominent lips and teeth, and darkened skin tone evoked racist imagery historically used to demean African Americans. The debate gained traction after TikTok creator Anastazia X recorded a video outside the shop and called the mascot a “blackface bagel.” In the video, which has since received nearly 90,000 views and 11,000 likes, she said she contacted the shop’s owner about her concerns but received no response.

“The fact that they made the bagel the brown shade it is, the hands and legs are also that same brown, and gave the bagel stereotypical signifiers of black culture make it problematic. It can’t just be written off as a silly bagel character, it has grillz,” wrote TikTok user @insbecktor_gadget as a comment on the video.

Bo Bagels owner Andrew Martinez, however, disputed the characterization of the mascot and said the controversy escalated into threats and harassment directed at him and his employees.

“It got completely out of hand by a bunch of people who know nothing about us,” said Martinez, a native New Yorker who’s lived in Harlem for nearly 20 years, to the Post. He said the backlash included insults directed at the shop’s Black employees, with callers allegedly telling them their employers hated them. Martinez added that Bo’s Bagels donates to local schools and provides food to homeless shelters. Nevertheless, he said the response forced him to remove the mascot.

Tom Sanford, the Harlem-based artist who created the mascot, also defended the design as an expression of culture rather than an attempt to demean Black people.

“Personally, I do not see uptown streetwear culture in a negative light at all,” he told the Post. “To me, these items represent overwhelmingly positive cultural contributions that came from the streets of my neighborhood and crossed over into the mainstream.”

Community members were divided over the mascot. Some agreed with the criticism, while others rejected the accusation that the sign constituted blackface. One longtime 43-year-old Harlemite said the bagel had “stereotypical imagery.”

“The gold chains, whatever else was on it, that’s just like a caricature they used to show back in the olden times…but this time it just happens to be on a bagel,” he told the Post.

On the other hand, 39-year-old Genisha Metcalf said critics have gone “too far ” by calling the sign “racist.”

“That’s not blackface,” she said.