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Ikea Atlanta Juneteenth menu changed after blowback over plans to serve fried chicken, watermelon

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Retailer Ikea is under fire after one of its stores reportedly sent out a lunch menu for a Juneteenth celebration that is said to have featured certain dishes that perpetuate racial stereotypes.

An Atlanta Ikea store sent a letter to employees last week to inform them of the celebration, which allegedly included a note about a "special menu" including items like fried chicken, watermelon and other foods with ties to racism, as reported by local CBS affiliate.

The meal was intended as an internal celebration for store workers, not for customers.


You can't make this shit up.
 
The...

I....

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Also includes one free view into the mind of a common Fox viewer, but don't look just at the comment. Look at the likes, too. Bet this **** has cried about being labeled "deplorable":

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At least they're honest about who they are over there. Here you get "concerns" and "just asking questions" in a wink wink nudge nudge know what I mean wrapping.

And then you've got all the other dipshits going "but, I'm white and like fried chicken, what's wrong with this? DOWN WITH THE LEFT!".....which is so not the ****ing point, you stupid deplorable.
 
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How accurate is the stereotype? Has any research ever been done on how much fried chicken and watermelon blacks eat relative to other demographics?

Regardless, why is the stereotype a bad thing? Objections to stereotypes like "Blacks are lazy," or "Blacks are unintelligent," etc. I can understand. But to "Blacks like fried chicken and watermelon."?

ETA: The sad thing is that IKEA now has to scrub fried chicken and watermelon from their menu every Juneteeth. Hence if the stereotype is leastways accurate, they're being forced to deliberately wipe foods liked by blacks off their menus. Viva progress. :rolleyes:

ETA 2: According to this, in 1996 blacks at the same amount of watermelon per capita as whites, and about 50% more chicken per capita as whites. The author also notes that consumption of fried chicken correlates with being below the poverty line, as does being black, hence for this reason alone blacks probably consume significantly more fried chicken.

Ergo, the verdict seems to be that the watermelon stereotype is meritless while the fried chicken stereotype has merit, albeit only as a rough generalization.
 
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Eh, I dont think it was intended to be offensive, but clearly it was not well thought out.
I hope the folks that thought this up are not in marketing and advertisement.
 
How accurate is the stereotype? Has any research ever been done on how much fried chicken and watermelon blacks eat relative to other demographics?

Regardless, why is the stereotype a bad thing? Objections to stereotypes like "Blacks are lazy," or "Blacks are unintelligent," etc. I can understand. But to "Blacks like fried chicken and watermelon."?

ETA: The sad thing is that IKEA now has to scrub fried chicken and watermelon from their menu every Juneteeth. Hence if the stereotype is leastways accurate, they're being forced to deliberately wipe foods liked by blacks off their menus. Viva progress. :rolleyes:
It's a shame that this needs to be explained to you. It is a bad thing because it was conceived of by whites as a way to disparage, denigrate and caricaturize black people and at a time when they were considered 1/2 a man and could be lynched for any perceived infraction.
 
I learned of Juneteenth when my family moved to Houston in 1969.
The odd thing about IKEA's stereotyping, is that it may be wrong.
As far as I remember Barbeque is a mainstay of Juneteenth.
Perhaps that is just a local Houston thing.
 
I learned of Juneteenth when my family moved to Houston in 1969.
The odd thing about IKEA's stereotyping, is that it may be wrong.
As far as I remember Barbeque is a mainstay of Juneteenth.
Perhaps that is just a local Houston thing.
Barbecue is a mainstay for any summer holiday anywhere in the US, I suspect
 
Barbecue is a mainstay for any summer holiday anywhere in the US, I suspect
I suspect you are right,
At the end of the day, our different races likely have more in common than we have in differences.
We all hope our children are safe, happy, and successful.
 
I learned of Juneteenth when my family moved to Houston in 1969.
The odd thing about IKEA's stereotyping, is that it may be wrong.
As far as I remember Barbeque is a mainstay of Juneteenth.
Perhaps that is just a local Houston thing.
Barbecue is probably a mainstay at every celebration in the south.
 
I grew up in a black neighborhood and remember being surprised when I first heard the chicken and watermelon thing. Mostly, because my people were West Virginia hillbillies and guess what two food items were on EVERY summer party menu?

The similarity between the poor white and black people goes much deeper than that. I noticed many things that, culturally, made me feel closer to them than I was to rich white people, whom I still struggle to connect with.

What would be on the racist menu for a day honoring white history? Mayonnaise? Potato salad? Help me out here.
 
I grew up in a black neighborhood and remember being surprised when I first heard the chicken and watermelon thing. Mostly, because my people were West Virginia hillbillies and guess what two food items were on EVERY summer party menu?

The similarity between the poor white and black people goes much deeper than that. I noticed many things that, culturally, made me feel closer to them than I was to rich white people, whom I still struggle to connect with.

What would be on the racist menu for a day honoring white history? Mayonnaise? Potato salad? Help me out here.

"White" people in America only exist when a white person points at a black person and says "black". At home, they're Irish or Polish, or Scottish, or British, or Saxon or some other nationality.

Whiteness in America only exists as a response to there being free black people without a clear ethnicity - because "white people" (slavers) made it that way.

Its why efforts to create global white supremacist networks or connections that are out in the open have largely failed. Russian white supremacists have no common history with supporters of America's slave owners or white supremacists. Hungarian white supremacists have no interest in a shared history with whites from South Africa.

This also explains why there is no "white history" celebrations around the world anymore than there is a Juneteenth in Mozambique.
 

There's nothing inherently wrong with any of the food, of course.

I had hoped the menu planner was foreign or otherwise unaware of the connotations of the menu.
It'd look different if some Swedes hired a local soul food restaurant to cater the event and ended up w/ this menu
than if some white Georgians brought in their regular catering company and gave them this menu.

Ikea says, "There were Black co-workers involved in the creation of the menu."

It is a good time of year for watermelons and peaches.
Collards too.
So, maybe someone just didn't think this all the way through?



Fewer fans of collards out there than of the rest of the menu items I bet.
It's cause y'all hadn't had'em cooked right.
of course ; )
 
"White" people in America only exist when a white person points at a black person and says "black". At home, they're Irish or Polish, or Scottish, or British, or Saxon or some other nationality.

Whiteness in America only exists as a response to there being free black people without a clear ethnicity - because "white people" (slavers) made it that way.

Its why efforts to create global white supremacist networks or connections that are out in the open have largely failed. Russian white supremacists have no common history with supporters of America's slave owners or white supremacists. Hungarian white supremacists have no interest in a shared history with whites from South Africa.

This also explains why there is no "white history" celebrations around the world anymore than there is a Juneteenth in Mozambique.

Uhhhh....it was a joke. I forgot that wokeness demands an environment devoid of laughter.
 
Not all, but most people like fried chicken and watermelon.
 
There's nothing inherently wrong with any of the food, of course.

I had hoped the menu planner was foreign or otherwise unaware of the connotations of the menu.
It'd look different if some Swedes hired a local soul food restaurant to cater the event and ended up w/ this menu
than if some white Georgians brought in their regular catering company and gave them this menu.

Ikea says, "There were Black co-workers involved in the creation of the menu."

It is a good time of year for watermelons and peaches.
Collards too.
So, maybe someone just didn't think this all the way through?



Fewer fans of collards out there than of the rest of the menu items I bet.
It's cause y'all hadn't had'em cooked right.
of course ; )
And maybe, just maybe, fried chicken and watermelon are American summer picnic staples that EVERYONE likes.

The only people that find this kind of thing to be racist are the ones that make it their business to find a little nugget of racism in everything.
 
Eh, I dont think it was intended to be offensive, but clearly it was not well thought out.
I hope the folks that thought this up are not in marketing and advertisement.


It takes a special kind of clueless to celebrate the end of slavery by serving foods that white people stereotyped black people as being ravenous for....



All sorts of people like that food, and the white people who did/do the stereotyping sure as hell aren't doing it out of the goodness of their hearts (hence Fox reader comments about serving chitlins and 40s; different food, same form, same intent)
 
Honestly, if they just put "White Wimmin'" on the menu, I would laugh my ass off.

This sounds like a bunch of white dudes trying to out cringe each other. I don't think this was hateful or anything, but it really does support CRT. A lot of people don't really understand how ingrained some of this stuff is.
 
And maybe, just maybe, fried chicken and watermelon are American summer picnic staples that EVERYONE likes.

The only people that find this kind of thing to be racist are the ones that make it their business to find a little nugget of racism in everything.
Approach some African Americans on the street and ask them "excuse me, "by any chance do you like Fried Chicken and Watermelon?" Let me know the responses that you get. The point is that context and being appropriate matters.
 
Eh, I dont think it was intended to be offensive, but clearly it was not well thought out.
I hope the folks that thought this up are not in marketing and advertisement.


It takes a special kind of clueless to celebrate the end of slavery by serving foods that white people stereotyped black people as being ravenous for....

All sorts of people like that food, and the white people who did/do the stereotyping sure as hell aren't doing it out of the goodness of their hearts (hence Fox reader comments about
serving chitlins and 40s; different food, same form, same intent)



And maybe, just maybe, fried chicken and watermelon are American summer picnic staples that EVERYONE likes.

The only people that find this kind of thing to be racist are the ones that make it their business to find a little nugget of racism in everything.

Just like the Fox readers, you don't stop to think for one ****ing second, so you go straight from "everyone likes this food" to "liberals are woke". Your agenda demands it.

You don't bother to think "why are black people stereotyped as liking fried chicken and watermelon" and "if they aren't uniquely ravenous for it and if other people like it, then what was the motive behind stereotyping black people as liking it?"

And of course, you've got to lie about all things racism, so you have to pretend that if anyone sees any problem here, they must be calling IKEA intentionally racist, then play victim on IKEA's behalf.
 
And maybe, just maybe, fried chicken and watermelon are American summer picnic staples that EVERYONE likes.
The only people that find this kind of thing to be racist are the ones that make it their business to find a little nugget of racism in everything.
It's unprofessional to be a host and then be insensitive.
Whether or not you think your guests have a right to be sensitive or not, they're still your guests.

Grown Americans, especially ones raised in the South, are generally aware of the connotations associated with the combination of watermelon, fried chicken, and Black folks.

Even if you think your guests are cry-baby doody-heads, you have invited them to a professional function where you are the host.


Show of hands.
How many people here like collards?
 
Barbecue is a mainstay for any summer holiday anywhere in the US, I suspect
To be fair I have also attended almost as many summer picnics that had fried chicken and watermelon as I have cookout with burgers or BBQ.

This seems like an instance of company trying hard to be inclusive, or hoping to jump on the PR bandwagon, and totally missing the mark.
 
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