Atlanta IKEA’s attempt to honor Juneteenth fell flat after a racially insensitive menu surfaced. This location of the Scandinavian furniture giant tried to observe the holiday with a problematic menu that outraged many employees.
Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. It is also often observed for celebrating African American culture.
Racially Insensitive
According to TMZ, who acquired an email that was sent last week to the employees of that location, they were told of the upcoming menu change. “To honor the perseverance of Black Americans and acknowledge the progress yet to be made, we observe Juneteenth on Saturday, June 19, 2021,”
The email continued with the offensive menu items, “fried chicken, watermelon, mac n cheese, potato salad, collard greens, candied yams.”
What seemed to trigger the controversy most was the combination of fried chicken and watermelon.
Watermelon was used to stereotype Black Americans starting during Reconstruction intensifying in the Jim Crow era.
An anonymous employee told CBS46 in Atlanta, “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.”
The anonymous employee also said that none of the employees who sat down to make the menu was black.
The store manager told CBS that the menu was revised the following day and a new menu was released
‘I truly apologize. The menu came off [offensive],” the store’s manager replied via internal email.
An updated version included collard greens, cornbread, mashed potatoes, and meatloaf. And Sunday’s menu? “Fried chicken, mac ’n’ cheese, collard greens,” according to the anonymous employee.
IKEA is a Swedish founded, Dutch multinational conglomerate that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances and home accessories, among other useful goods and occasionally home services. The company has 67 locations across North America.
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