Juneteenth menu featuring watermelon, fried chicken causes outrage from employees

[left-of-center2012]

An Ikea store in Atlanta is under fire over a food menu it put together that it said was to honor the Juneteenth holiday, according to WGCL. The Juneteenth menu contained fried chicken, watermelon, mac and cheese and collard greens. It was going to be available to all employees on Saturday to “honor and persevere Black Americans” on Juneteenth, the store stated in an email sent to employees, according to the report.

Instead, it sparked outrage among employees. According to the report, more than 30 employees called out from work that day, while many were contemplating quitting. “You cannot say serving watermelon on Juneteenth is a soul food menu when you don’t even know the history, they used to feed slaves watermelon during the slave time,” one employee told the news station.

Following the incident, Ikea released a statement, saying

“In addition to offering Juneteenth as one of our paid holidays nationally, our IKEA Atlanta store has recognized Juneteenth with our co-workers for the past four years. To honor the day, a lunch menu was created with the best of intentions, including recommendations from black co-workers. We value our co-workers’ voices and changed the menu after receiving feedback that the foods that were selected are not reflective of the deeply meaningful traditional foods historically served as part of Juneteenth celebrations. We got it wrong and we sincerely apologize. We are committed to educating ourselves and putting a process in place that will allow us to thoughtfully honor Juneteenth in the future.”

The store manager also told WGCL that the Juneteenth menu was changed following the backlash. However, employees noted that the menu was just delayed by one day, with the original menu (watermelon, fried chicken) being served on Sunday instead.

https://www.pennlive.com/nation-world/2021/06/ikea-stores-juneteenth-menu-featuring-watermelon-fried-chicken-causes-outrage-from-employees.html

[jimfields33]

1. Just stop giving food and give a bonus

I don’t know why companies think a lunch good intentions or not is a wonderful thing. It’s not. Give a bonus of some sort. That’s more then enough.

[FreeState]

26. It cost more to give a bonus unfortunately

I run into this at work - they would rather give swag than cash because of taxes.

[Cracklin Charlie]

2. I think the menu sounds delicious.

I grew up eating food like that, every day of every week. I’m white. I don’t really think fried chicken goes too good with watermelon, but barbecue chicken surely does!

We all eat/love the food that black Americans eat every day, because we are all Americans!

I think I would rather celebrate collard greens than cancel them out. Maybe not at the IKEA diner though. But there are plenty of places that make good fried chicken and collard greens every day.

I just think we need to be careful of the results of any actions we take. I want to celebrate black American culture, not force it off the menu.

[Ocelot II]

3. I think the concern - a legitimate one, IMO - was the stereotyping,

that watermelon and the other items are "black" food. Years ago there were a lot of racist drawings and cartoons of Black people, especially children, eating watermelon. Here's a link to an article about watermelons as a racist trope. https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/12/how-watermelons-became-a-racist-trope/383529/ I won't post any of the cartoons but Google will bring up a bunch of them, and they're pretty offensive. IKEA may have had good intentions but this was pretty tone-deaf.

[Cracklin Charlie]

8. I get that.

I grew up in a tiny southern town. I always considered my town somehow “blessed” that we had black folks in our town. Some towns didn’t. The towns that did seemed more prosperous, and progressive.

We all ate that food, not just our black neighbors. I have several friends whose dads were watermelon farmers, bless their heart. All I had to do was pull up in the front yard of their house, and sheila’s dad would put a sun warm watermelon in my back seat. (I love the sun warm watermelon).
I could go to my friends house for dinner. Her dad owned six or eight banks, and thousands of farm acres. What we eat? Beans, cornbread, and collard greens. Sweet tea.

I just want to make sure we’re protesting/boycotting the right things.

Damn if I didn’t make myself hungry.

[LanternWaste]

11. Is there a list of the 'right' things to protest?

"just want to make sure we’re protesting/boycotting the right things..."

[Cracklin Charlie]

14. For me there is.

Protest injustice
Protest harm to humans and other living creatures
Protest racism and bigotry

Sometimes I worry that white folks shouting racism about fried chicken and collard greens will only serve to diminish and remove more dangerous or harmful examples of racism and bigotry from the public discussion.

There is a black man in my state who has been in prison forty years for a crime he didn’t commit. Prosecutors know he is innocent but can’t get him released. The governor could, but will not, pardon an innocent man.

Collard greens are delicious…injustice tastes like shit.

[MrsCoffee]

37. And stereotyping tastes like ass.

Sure am glad that I can multitask and protest many forms of bigotry at once. I don't need to pick and choose.

[Jedi Guy]

45. Damn if you didn't make ME hungry!

I grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and I really miss the food. Say what you will about Southerners, but damn if those folks can't cook! I grew up on gumbo, jambalaya, fried catfish, fried shrimp, fried chicken, hushpuppies, blue crab, crawfish... mmm-MMM! And the sweet tea! Sure, it's sugar water with tea added for color, but goddamn it's delicious.

There was a place near where I grew up called Aunt Jenny's. It's right on Old Fort Bayou in Ocean Springs, in an old plantation house converted into a restaurant. They knocked out the first floor walls and replaced them with floor-to-ceiling windows so you can see the grounds and the bayou, including an ancient oak. They also have a gift shop with stuff created by local artisans.

The only things on the menu are fried catfish, fried shrimp, and fried chicken (all you can eat and served with fries and hushpuppies, of course). You get buttermilk biscuits still hot from the oven with your meal, along with honey, butter, and apple butter. I always got the catfish and loaded it up with Tabasco.

If you're ever passing through the Biloxi/Ocean Springs area, drop in for dinner. I had the good fortune to go back almost 10 years ago on a road trip with friends, and it brought back so many memories...

[Cracklin Charlie]

47. I grew up in the Mississippi River delta of Arkansas.

I now live in the Midwest.

My brother called me on my last birthday, and asked what I was doing. I say cooking dinner. He says you’re cooking your own birthday dinner???

I say, now where around here could I get beans and cornbread, and strawberry shortcake?

He says, oh, yeah. Happy birthday.

[LiberatedUSA]

53. I think I remember reading a news story a few years back...

...where a school or someplace served pizza for a meal that was supposed to be like this as a way to make sure they wouldn’t get called racist, but ended up getting called racist for not serving the correct food.

So sometimes it is damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

[Caliman73]

5. I think that many Black people enjoy those food items as well. On their terms.

The problem, as the other person who responded, points out, is the association of stereotypes to an important holiday.

I am Mexican-American. I love beans and Mexican rice. I could eat that everyday. In fact, as child, there was always a pot of beans and pan of Mexican rice available.

I would still be offended as hell if a White person who knows little about me or my culture decided to have a Cinco de Mayo party serving beans and rice. Cinco de Mayo is not widely celebrated by Mexican people, especially not in Mexico, other than in Puebla, where the battle took place. It was created as a way of "celebrating" immigrants and Mexican-Americans in the Southwest, but has largely become an excuse for a "drinking holiday".




It isn't about the food. It is about the lack of understanding, and the arrogance of assumption.

The story states that some employees thought that there were no Black employees on the committee making the menu while the store says that there were. Even so, it is not a good look.

[Blue_true]

17. I can't eat watermelon with any type of meat.

I can’t eat the combination until one of them has been digested completely. The only time that I tried both in a single setting, I threw up everything.

[moose65]

4. This is strange to me

I don't really think of watermelon as soul food, but the rest of the menu sounds great.

In the South, many things that are "soul food" are enjoyed by all people - probably because there were a lot of Black housekeepers and cooks who fed many people a lot of that food.

The watermelon thing, because of the past caricatures and minstrel shows, is the only "offensive" thing on the menu. I mean, if you look at the menu for Sylvia's in Harlem, probably the most famous soul food restaurant in the country, you'll find fried chicken, collard greens, and mac and cheese, as well as a lot of other delicious stuff.

[Blue_true]

20. Down here, fried chicken is eaten by everyone.

Drive around down here, many of the convenience stores sell fried chicken every day, and they sell out. Fried Talapia (fish) is becoming popular in those stores also, but get there early because it sells out faster than fried chicken.

[moose65]

42. I know

I live "down here" too

I don't eat fried chicken often anymore - it tends to disagree with me. Watermelon I can take or leave it - it's not one of my favorites, but I will eat it from time to time. However, I do NOT put salt all over it as many people do!

[Blue_true]

51. The trick with watermelon and salt is to use a tiny amount of salt.

Get that right, then the flavor is impressive, especially with fully ripened watermelon.

[left-of-center2012]

6. My mother was a Texan

She was born in 1904 and grew up and lived in Texas until she was around 35 when she moved North with my father.

Much of the southern cooking that she made for us is commonly referred to as soul food although we were not people of color.

It was just good food and we did enjoy our watermelons during the summer.

We did not think of it as racist. Just plain old good cooking, southern style.

We also enjoy corned beef and cabbage for St Patrick's Day. Maybe that will be the next taboo?

[Wingus Dingus]

9. Surprised that Ikea in the US didn't know this food-associated stereotype--

I mean, it's probably not Swedish managers coming up with this idea, it's fellow Americans. However, I never understood how this became a negative/insulting stereotype for black people--making fun of them for some of the most delicious food on the planet? Who DOESN'T eat fried chicken, for example, unless they're vegetarian? It is the best of southern cuisine. There is a news story in GD about basketball players hurling tortillas at the opposing (Latino) team as an insult. What a dumb fucking insult. Tortillas are a wonder. I'll bet every one of those little shits loves tacos and burritos. Hate comes out in weird and stupid ways. I think Ikea meant well, though.

[moose65]

43. The insult isn't that Black people eat chicken and watermelon...

It's that, during the Jim Crow era (early 1900s) there were many racist advertisements that usually featured Black children with a giant grin and a huge piece of watermelon or fried chicken, usually accompanied by a line of print that tried to "mimic" the way they talked. The association with watermelon thus became ingrained.

[Blue_true]

24. Many Whites have fried chicken and watermelon at family meals during the Summer.

My guess is that it was a White person who had that type of meal often and didn’t understand that for Black people, that combination is problematic from an image perspective (and from a stomach perspective for me).

As a Black person, I don’t know how to view the mixup. Maybe the person that planned the menu should have asked around before finalizing it. For me, fried chicken goes best with chilled peach cobbler on a Summer day, if I try watermelon with it, I will get sick.

[left-of-center2012]

25. "Maybe the person that planned the menu should have asked around before finalizing it."

This is in the OP:
“... a lunch menu was created with the best of intentions, including recommendations from black co-workers.”

[Blue_true]

27. My reading was that the menu was modified after the outrage.

I see your point though. I live in the South, the basic diets of Black people and White people down here are more dependent on economic class than race, poor Blacks and poor Whites eat pretty much the same type of food.

[moose65]

44. You're right about that

It is more about economic class, I think. Most working class people, black and white, in the South have more in common than they think, including food.

[llashram]

7. IF we can stop

stereotyping because of conscious and unconscious negative ideas of the different races in our "melting pot". Then maybe we can move forward into an uncertain future united against the RW forces of hate in this country. Maybe.

[Bayard]

10. I'm a watermelon FIEND

Grow my own patch every year. That menu sounds damn good to me! Well, except for the collard greens. Blackeyed peas instead, cooked with ham, onions, and shoots would be great!

And Diet Coke.

[Goodheart]

23. One of the few foods I do not like.

And I eat some pretty exotic stuff. Watermelon just tastes weird.

[Blue_true]

28. If you can find some, try freeze-dried red watermelon slices. nt

[smirkymonkey]

32. So am I.

I think it's one of my top five favorite foods. I crave it! I love the taste, texture, color - everything about it. It is my favorite summer dessert. An essential for every BBQ.

[leftyladyfrommo]

12. I'm white. I'm from Missouri. I love fried chicken, mashed

potatoes. Corn on the cob. And watermelon.

It's a Southern thing. Ot might be a Black thing but it's a White favorite, too.

[Blue_true]

29. I agree. I live in the South, Whites eat a lot of fried chicken and watermelon down here. nt

[meadowlander]

35. Yeah but you and your ancestors didn't have to put up with this bullshit for 300 years

so maybe the fact that you're white and like chicken and watermelon isn't really that relevant to the discussion.

[crickets]

36. Good point. nt

[betsuni]

38. Thank you. History.

This happens every once in a while, same menu, usually during Black History Month.

An Ikea customer interviewed on the news I saw said he was disappointed in the learning process. People object to something being stereotypical and offensive, listen and learn why. We have miraculous computer machines, it doesn't take long. Done. Now you know. But every time this kind of menu happens people insist everyone likes fried chicken and watermelon. Not the point. Learn!

[moose65]

40. So no one can ever comment on fried chicken?

Come on.

I get it. I know the history and the offensive caricatures. But does that mean that no one can ever mention fried chicken ever again? As I said in another comment, there are soul food restaurants all over this country that feature (horrors) fried chicken!

Maybe places like IKEA shouldn't try to do a special menu for Juneteenth. Just celebrate the holiday.

[meadowlander]

52. Apply this simple test:

1. Are you posting in a thread about a company with white executives serving fried chicken *at a Juneteenth celebration* and whether or not that might be offensive to black employees or to black people generally?

Yes (proceed to 2) No (don't worry about it)

2. Are you thinking about posting to dismiss the legitimate concerns of black people about the racial insensitivity of that menu with an irrelevant anecdote about the fact that you are white and like fried chicken too?

Yes (please, don't) No (well done)

Context. It's your friend. Apply it.

[betsuni]

54. Perfect.

[moose65]

56. And I acknowledged that above

I think it's silly to have a "Juneteenth" menu, or a Black History Month menu.

Is the term "Soul Food" offensive as well?

[Ligyron]

13. Forgot the cornbread.

How could they forget the cornbread?

[Blue_true]

30. It was there. It got lost in the dust up over the fried chicken and melon.

I actually like Northern cornbread more than I like southern cornbread. The southern stuff is too greasy and dense.

[Oneironaut]

46. And the Kool-Aide!

One of my favorite cringe moments on Fox News was Brian Kilmeade from Fox and Friends asking a black woman if she likes Kool-Aide.

Edit

[Blue_true]

31. For Black people, fried chicken and watermelon was used as a racist putdown

during the Jim Crowe era and beyond. It is a sensitive image for many Black people.

But you do make a good point, Whites here in the South eat a lot of fried chicken and watermelon together at picnics and Summer family meals, so it is possible that the person was clueless about the issue that a Black person may have with being offered that combination on a day that is important for Black people.

[Goodheart]

33. As a son of the South. myself, I'm quite familiar with all that.

But given the fact that in my 68 years I've seen many, many white people eat fried chicken and watermelon, and can't recall the last time I've seen fried chicken and watermelon hurled as an insult, I think it's about time to let go of the "outrage", especially in THIS case where the managers relied on recommendations from black employees and even then STILL apologized for any slight they might have caused.

[Blue_true]

34. We will have to agree to disagree.

I tend to be a Black person that is insensitive to racial slights directed at me, in pretty much all cases, short of spitting on me, I don’t even notice them when they happen. For example, I was out with a White colleague once and a police officer started asking me about something that I owned, in a conversational way. I carried on the conversation but noticed that my White colleague was edgy, my colleague finally said to me that we had to be somewhere else. After we were out of earshot of the police officer, my colleague said that the cop was asking the questions like I had stolen the item because the cop didn’t think that I could afford to buy something like what I owned, my colleague’s take took me aback, I hadn’t noticed that but after he pointed it out, I realized that he had seen something that I had not. But I am also a Black person that has had a lot of success in a White and Asian dominated career field, so my racial-slight detection antennae is almost surely less tuned than a Black person that has had more of a struggle. My guess is the makeup of the IKEA store is a handful of managers and a lot of hourly people, the perspective and level of sensitivity to a real or perceived racial slight of Blacks in that situation likely is different from how I would react.

[StarfishSaver]

57. Excellent response

[eShirl]

16. that would piss me right off

I don't buy that it wasn't meant to be insulting.

[Goodheart]

18. Do you personally know the managers?

[eShirl]

19. do you?

[Goodheart]

21. So, you condemn them without knowing them. Even when they used recommendations from black employees

And STILL apologized (even though I don't think they needed to.). Gotcha

[eShirl]

22. Ya.

nice editing btw

[moose65]

41. Hmmmm

So you think the managers all got together and said, "OK, how can we insult and offend Black people today?" Really??

[AshleyGray]

39. thank

thank for sharing the information

[gopiscrap]

58. welcome to DU

[treestar]

48. It's just food

So suppose they had the normal menu, ignoring the Juneteenth holiday? That'd be OK, right?

[CatWoman]

49. what?

no tap dancing for entertainment????

[GulfCoast66]

50. It's interesting. I certainly know the caricatures of African Americans and watermelon

And fried chicken during Jim Crow.

I grew in the South in the 60 and 70s and those food were what was served at my house almost daily. Well and chicken fried round steak and lots of other things.

I remember hearing the term Soul food and wondering what it was. I’m mean I was smart enough to know it was ‘black’ food but was probably I was in college when I learned it was what I ate every day! Pre-internet and all.

I don’t eat that food daily due to health reasons, same as my African American friends. But like me they love to occasionally treat themselves with a taste of childhood.

So from just the standpoint of what foods would be enjoyed this was probably a good idea. I can’t speak of the offensive side because I’m white, of course.

But here is the point I was wanting to make. Or at least question to ask. If the people coming up with this were in their 20’s or even 30’s they may have had no idea. And the article states African Americans were involved. I’m wondering how long these painful images carry a stigma? Not say it still does not or should not. But say in 2050. Will it still matter? I just found the question interesting and realized I’m not the one to make that call!

BTW, I go to a couple of Soul Food restaurants every few months in down Orlando. If you like this food you should try it. Good food and supporting a black owned business. They cook it better than I can. Better than my mom did, to be honest.

[Politicub]

55. Fried chicken is my favorite food. Kinda dumb on IKEA's part to do this, though.

Next time have a potluck or something.