Ikea Angers Staff With Fried Chicken & Watermelon Juneteenth Menu

It looks like some companies are going to need sensitivity training regarding how to properly honor Juneteenth, particularly an Ikea store that treated staff and customers to a racially insensitive meal.

In an email sent to employees at an Atlanta Ikea store, the manager said that a special menu was being provided to employees and customers to acknowledge Juneteenth, which has recently been deemed a federal holiday. The email called the menu a way to “honor the perseverance of Black Americans and acknowledge the progress yet to be made.” The menu included fried chicken, watermelon, mac and cheese, and collard greens, which are all meals stereotypically linked to the Black community.

Staff members who spoke on the condition of anonymity shared Friday’s email with CBS Atlanta affiliate WGCL-TV. Thirty-three of them did not show up to work on Saturday, while others have considered quitting. They called the management’s actions ignorant and demanded that they educate themselves on the Black culture.

“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 explained. “It caused a lot of people to be upset. People actually wanted to quit. People weren’t coming back to work.”

The mass call-out prompted the manager to send an internal email apologizing for the menu.

“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,” part of the email read. The store manager told WGCL and workers that his team changed the menu once the matter was brought to their attention, though it still contained cornbread and collard greens.

“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,” a staff member revealed.

Customers were also not here for the insulting food lineup.

“I’m just frankly disappointed in the learning process. You shouldn’t learn after you have insulted all of your black employees,” said one shopper.