IKEA Juneteenth menu of watermelon, fried chicken sparks outrage

An try to honor Juneteenth has backfired spectacularly for a person Georgia Ikea.

An Atlanta branch of the Scandinavian furniture chain has sparked outrage with what staff are contacting an intensely problematic menu curated to celebrate the holiday break, which marks the emancipation of the quite final enslaved Americans. 

“To honor the perseverance of Black Americans and accept the progress still to be manufactured, we notice Juneteenth on Saturday, June 19, 2021,” commences an e-mail acquired by TMZ, which was despatched to staff at the branch final week. “Look out for a specific menu on Saturday which will contain: fried chicken, watermelon, mac n cheese, potato salad, collard greens, candied yams.” 

The choice, such as things that have historically been applied to demean African-Americans by way of stereotyping, resulted in several staff contacting out of do the job in protest, according to a nearby information channel.

“You can not say serving watermelon on Juneteenth is a soul meals menu when you don’t even know the history. They applied to feed slaves watermelon,” an nameless worker advised Atlanta’s CBS 46. “It induced a ton of folks to be upset. Men and women truly wanted to stop. Men and women weren’t coming again to do the job.” 

As many as 33 staff did not exhibit up in reaction, CBS documented, producing the store’s supervisor to apologize by way of internal e-mail. 

“She stated, ‘I really apologize. The menu came off [offensive],’” the worker recalled.

But this wasn’t sufficient for forgiveness, and the worker stated the controversy could have been quickly avoided if only folks of shade experienced been bundled in the crew that selected the menu. “None of the co-staff who sat down to make the menu, no a person was black,” they additional. 

The pursuing working day, the retail outlet supervisor advised CBS a new, revised menu was released. The updated variation bundled collard greens, cornbread, mashed potatoes and meatloaf. And Sunday’s menu? “Fried chicken, mac ’n’ cheese, collard greens,” the worker stated.

Ikea did not return The Post’s ask for for comment.