Last week, as New York & Company employees were unpacking stock at their Lexington Avenue store, they noticed a new accessory with an unsavory history. Former employee Amber Thomas shared an image of what the retailer called "the Y-necklace," a rose gold chain with several coils fashioned like a noose. "Everyone who saw the item recoiled and couldn't believe the company had authorized such offensive merchandise," she wrote in a caption accompanying the photo. "It’s common knowledge that the noose has always been a deadly weapon and a symbol of intimidation used by white supremacist hate groups like the Klu Klux Klan all over the country to take the lives of African-Americans and those that worked for equality and freedom."