Santa Cruz Gap Store Draws Complaints Over Black Jeans Hung From 'Nooses'

SANTA CRUZ (CBS SF) -- A Santa Cruz Gap store has altered a merchandise display showing jeans hung from ropes similar to nooses following a number of complaints.

The display of black denim jeans were part of the San Francisco-based retailer's 1969 clothing line.

The Santa Cruz Sentinal reported some customers went into the store to complain about the imagery. "The ropes itself does look like lynching and that's not OK," Santa Cruz resident Kelly Zhu told the Santa Cruz Sentinal, and added that the '1969' branding reminds people of the civil rights movement.

1969 was the year of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination and race riots in U.S. cities.

"'I can't just walk by this and not say anything. I think it's pretty offensive,'" Santa Cruz resident Rachel Arias told the Sentinal.

Others noted the ropes did not have the signature hangman's knot of a noose.

KSBW-TV reported the display was changed on Wednesday, with the jeans hung from ropes without a loop.

The Santa Cruz Sentinal said Gap corporate communications did not respond to multiple queries about the display.

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