A Charlotte Call Center Served It’s 👫🏿 Employees Fried Chicken And Watermelon For Juneteenth 🍗 🍉

[KyokushinKarateMan]

As I was making the title of this thread, the “similar threads” or whatever popped up and I discovered that TLR seems rather divided on the topic

These replies were in response to the following thread from 2021, when IKEA did the same thing:

IKEA employees offended over Juneteenth menu.​

A menu that the manager of an Ikea store in Atlanta says was meant to honor Juneteenth instead angered Black employees who called it insensitive. Many didn't show up for work on Saturday – Juneteenth – and some even thought about quitting.

The manager is apologizing.

Employees who requested anonymity due to fear of repercussions showed CBS Atlanta affiliate WGCL-TV an email sent Friday that said the special menu for customers and employees was one way to "honor the perseverance of Black Americans and acknowledge the progress yet to be made."

The menu included items such as fried chicken, watermelon, mac and cheese and collard greens.

Employees called that racially insensitive and ignorant and said members of management need to do more to educate themselves on black culture moving forward.

"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 slavery time," one employee said.

"It caused a lot of people to be upset. People actually wanted to quit. People weren't coming back to work," he continued.

Employees said 33 people called out from work, which sparked an internal email response from the store manager on Saturday.

It said in part, "I truly apologize if the menu came off as subjective. It was created with the best of intentions by a few of our coworkers who believed they were representing their culture and tradition with these foods of celebration."

However, employees said the decisions behind the creation of the menu should have included voices of color first.

"None of the coworkers who sat down to create the menu -- nobody was black," the employee said.

The store manager told employees and WGCL that the menu was amended after the issue was raised.

But another employee said, "They just delayed the menu by a day, thinking that everybody who was upset stayed home on Juneteenth and wouldn't notice on Sunday, which just added insult to injury."

The revised menu still included collard greens, corn bread, mashed potatoes and meatloaf.

Customers also felt the menu was insulting.

"I'm just frankly disappointed in the learning process -- you shouldn't learn after you have insulted all of your black employees," said one.

The store manager told WGCL management deeply apologizes for what happened and realizes they got the menu wrong.

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You’re supposed to eat watermelon for Juneteenth

Same shyt happened with one of the dining halls for international students at my college

They had fried chicken, kool aid, watermelon, all that shyt.

Zero tact, just called it African American food day or some shyt.

Keep in mind I was literally the only black person in there who wasn’t from Africa and it was 90% Euro cacs and Asians. It was super uncomfortable even being in there witnessing at the BS

Only went there bc they had better food than the regular dining hall so I woulda never peeped the shyt otherwise.

I had exposed that shyt and got in contact with the black community on campus. So the international dining hall is a separate entity from the campus dining hall.

A lot of black people work for the campus dining hall and a breh was actually in charge of it. I made sure word got around to breh and he went IN on they asses. Had a sit down meeting with the dude who ran the international dining hall and everything.

Hopefully they won’t pull no bullshyt like that ever again, but I graduated before I got to see if there was any real change

Some posters had other opinions:

Facts.

Plus it’s super healthy and helped us digest all the other bullshyt easier.

If anything, the employees should be upset with themselves for not knowing watermelon is a traditional Juneteenth food along with red velvet cake, hibiscus tea or any other red beverage.

What food would y'all deem appropriate to be served? If the manager served mayo sandwiches with fruit salad would the employees be happy with that. I'll never understand being embarrassed to eat the foods we love.

For those who had to work, did your employer do anything for Juneteenth? If you ARE the employer, do you operate on that day and, if so, do you do anything to commemorate it?

 

[315]

I could go for some watermelon right about now

 

[Squirrel from Meteor Man]

If you knew your history, you wouldn’t let white people shame you into not eating fried chicken ( that was made out of necessity) and watermelon (which is great for hydration, something that was needed for obvious reasons). They also taste good.

They try denigrate you for eating fried chicken and watermelon, and then turn around and open a restaurant and serve it to each other.

This is typical white liberals and their black flunkies trying to tell black people how to feel.

 

[Phitz]

I could go for some watermelon right about now

I just finished a whole one

 

[Commish]

This iish is beyond corny @ this point! Smh..

Whoever made the decision to serve fried & knew exactly what they were doing!

But, if they wanted to do something to celebrate a cultural holiday, then extend a courtesy by asking the employees what they would like for said holiday...

Blk ppl aren't a monolith, but some non-Blks continue to assume that Blk ppl are monoliths. Smh..

 

[Starman]

I can't imagine a Juneteenth menu without fried chicken.

 

[MrRDU]

You ever been to a Bojangles? Nothing but cacs

 

[B86]

You ever been to a Bojangles? Nothing but cacs

Ever been to a Bojangles in Charlotte back when they had the all you could eat buffet every Wednesday? A whole lot of us were up in there.

Why do we do this?

 

[Youngdev]

They had a juneteeth event at work and had mad chicken

I took some home

 

[Luke Cage]

Has this ever gone over well for people to shocked when there is outrage?
Feel like people are just stupid or doing it intentionally to make people mad.

Fried Chicken and Watermelon aren't even traditionally served together, We eat watermelon at cookouts, with burgers, ribs, potato salad and stuff like that.

Fried chicken we usually eat with mash potatoes or mac and cheese , cornbread,, greens etc
I've never sat down to a plate like this in any black home i've ever visited or lived in

 

[Unbothered]

Many foods and sources that were created for human consumption and are popular among many ethnicities and cultures have become stigmatized and racialized by ignorant racist people.

Unfortunately, for any ethnic (non-white in particular) individual being served foods that are synonymous with their culture by “outsiders” (people who don't share the same race or ethnicity as one), sometimes it might rub off the wrong way because you never know what that person is thinking about you, let alone if they're operating in good faith or intentions.

There's nothing wrong with eating these foods but certain types of people made it a point to attach negative notions and assumptions about other people (in this case Black people) and their cultural impact of eating these foods. I'm not a big watermelon fan let any type of melon fan in general but I wouldn't let anybody shame me for eating food.

If you let someone (racists, bigots, etc) shame you for your culture and being who you are then you'll never live in peace because they'll always have more control over your mental well-being.

 

[richaveli83]

They should have poled the employees on what to order for lunch.

 

[The_Sheff]

We had generic ass burgers, hot dogs, and chips. These cheap fukkers would never spend the money for fried chicken.

 

[Pressure]

Never been to a summer cookout without fried chicken/fish and watermelon.

 

[ReturnOfJudah]

c00ns deep in this thread

Worked ar their Austin location in the retention
dept there for a couple of months. That place is one big shyt show