https://nypost.com/2021/06/22/...cken-sparks-outrage/

An attempt to honor Juneteenth has backfired spectacularly for one Georgia Ikea.

An Atlanta branch of the Scandinavian furniture chain has sparked outrage with what employees are calling an intensely problematic menu curated to celebrate the holiday, which marks the emancipation of the very last enslaved Americans.

“To honor the perseverance of Black Americans and acknowledge the progress yet to be made, we observe Juneteenth on Saturday, June 19, 2021,” begins an email acquired by TMZ, which was sent to employees at the branch last week. “Look out for a special menu on Saturday which will include: fried chicken, watermelon, mac n cheese, potato salad, collard greens, candied yams.”

The selection, including items that have historically been used to demean African-Americans through stereotyping, resulted in multiple employees calling out of work in protest, according to a local news channel.

“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,” an anonymous employee told Atlanta’s CBS 46. “It caused a lot of people to be upset. People actually wanted to quit. People weren’t coming back to work.”

As many as 33 workers didn’t show up in response, CBS reported, causing the store’s manager to apologize via internal email.

“She said, ‘I truly apologize. The menu came off [offensive],’” the employee recalled.

But this wasn’t sufficient for forgiveness, and the worker said the controversy could have been easily avoided if only people of color had been included in the team that chose the menu. “None of the co-workers who sat down to create the menu, no one was black,” they added.

The following day, the store manager told CBS a new, revised menu was released. The updated version included collard greens, cornbread, mashed potatoes and meatloaf. And Sunday’s menu? “Fried chicken, mac ’n’ cheese, collard greens,” the employee said.

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

No good deed goes unpunished.

Gotta get over it sometime, ya bunch of bawling little babies.

Perhaps we can eradicate watermelons from the planet.

The chickens have to stay, though.

quote:

They used to feed slaves watermelon

Picnickers, too! Cub scouts, even!! Evil! EVIL!!!!

Let's see- I'm trying to think of a food which would "offend" me- something horribly shocking. Some food which by its very presence offends my entire race.

thinking...

thinking...

Those crazy Swedes! But, I’ll tell ya, the menu for the blacks (insensitive as is) sure sounds a lot tastier than that old meatloaf and taters peddled to the white folks. I’m hungry!

WTF? No kool-aid?

I bet that menu tastes a hell of a lot better than Ikea's meatballs.

You are a bad man

It's hard to find good soul food.

Chitlins =

Can’t use what they were served, what they harvested or anything that they touched during slavery times. I’m curious what menu would have been acceptable and why.

So these days, I’m assuming that giving cotton clothing as a gift to a black person is racist now? I don’t know much about black history or slavery. Or African slavery. Or Korean slavery. Or Jewish slavery. But somehow I’m expected to know what would be racially insensitive across the globe. When do I get to be outraged? Every culture or society or religion has been subject to some abuse at some point in time. What a joy to live in an age where every culture society religion will call foul at every insensitivity.

I guess Ret Lopsta is out of the question?

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
What a joy to live in an age where every culture society religion will call foul at every insensitivity.

Not everyone, no. Just a select few who are fucking up the planet.

This is all so complicated. I drove by the Juneteenth celebration in Ocala the other day and a roadside truck was selling watermelons. No one was outraged.

I love watermelon and fried chicken, they were a few waffles and syrup away from getting me interested in this whole juneteenth thing. Guess I’ll just keep ignoring it.

I wish IKEA would just say to them “shut the fuck up you perpetually offended children”. And leave it at that. You cannot please those who look endlessly for things to be offended over.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

quote:

They used to feed slaves watermelon

Picnickers, too! Cub scouts, even!!

Holy smokes! They fed picnickers and Cub Scouts to slaves, too?!?!

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
You cannot please those who look endlessly for things to be offended over.

Amen, brother.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
WTF? No kool-aid?

Excuse me? It's purple drank.

There is tremendous power in grievance but it is only the power we give it.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
WTF? No kool-aid?

Excuse me? It's purple drank.

Naw, can't be serving no grape Jolly Ranchers, Sprite, and codeine cough syrup at a family event.

quote:

Originally posted by darthfuster:
There is tremendous power in grievance but it is only the power we give it.

Well, they're drawin' zero amps from me.

Soon no one will care about any of it. If one is irredeemable, why care about redemption?

89 years. That is the span from the founding to the effective end of slavery in the US. 89 years. All of this grief and strife for 89 years to abolish a preexisting economy in part of the country. 89 years and a civil war to cleanse what tyrants across the Atlantic created to line their royal pockets.