“We want to acknowledge some feedback received regarding our Juneteenth celebration,” Pezzuto said in his letter obtained by The North Carolina Beat. “Although our intent was to celebrate this nationally recognized day, some of you voiced your concerns regarding the associated food choices.”
In other words, we’re sorry you were offended.
Reading the article, it seems like it may have been more of a case of poor judgement from management instead of intentional racism (maybe subconscious stereotyping, though). It’s a really stupid mistake. For any holiday, all you have to do is ask the team for input BEFORE making decisions and you can avoid most of this nonsense.
It was intentional, they served grape soda too.
The topic is a mine field for a big company. I think lots of people do eat fried chicken on Juneteenth celebrations, and red foods in general are part of the theme, but the problem is that fried chicken and watermelon are among the stereotypes that have been applied to black folks for generations.
I’m an old white guy. If my boss gave me the responsibility of arranging food for a Juneteenth celebration, I would suggest that there’s too many ways the company could end up looking poorly, and would probably suggest a company poll/survey (which of these main dishes, which of these sides, etc.) to let the people decide. Better, since my company has a black employees association, I’d suggest that we have that group lead it and give them a budget.
My point is that a company should have the sense to make sure they approach sensitive situations carefully.
Dude just get pizza like every other work function, jeez.
The thing is that both are great foods but knowing how a southern white clown thinks… they meant it. Fuk 'em
oh, you don’t need to be white to think this was a good idea.
Not really wanting to weigh in myself if he’s right or wrong.
Right? I’ve never understood how that became a stereotype in the first place. Fried chicken is basically ubiquitous in all cultures in one form or another, including Europe. Turns out the vast majority of people like deep fried meat. Were southern elites just lying their asses off like “fried chicken? Yeah, disgusting. Totally hate it”?
Such a dumb fucking stereotype
Chickens were often the only animals enslaved people were allowed to raise for themselves. Like many racist stereotypes, it’s more rooted in the 20th Century than slavery or early American history. There used to be some chain restaurants - notably Coon Chicken Inn - that used racist caricatures to sell their fried chicken, so it’s basically an advertising meme.
Pretty much the same thing for watermelon. It was an easy to grow fruit that freed slaves used as a source of income and they caricatured it in racist media.
Ikr? I fucking love fried chicken and watermelon but they had to go and ruin it for the rest of us.
but knowing how a southern white clown thinks
The weird thing is a huge percentage of people living in Charlotte aren’t even from the south. There are a lot of corporations headquartered in Charlotte, which has led to a huge influx of transplants over the last two decades. Hell, It’s got a large enough Western NY population that there are Sabres/Bills bars and I could get regional products like white hots at the grocery store.
Source: I was one of them until two months ago when I relocated again.
You’re in the South and this was the closest thing to soul food you could find, huh?
Isn’t that considered the traditional meal that is served on Juneteenth? I’m not trying to be an asshole. I also think that you’re supposed to serve a red drink too.
https://www.oprahdaily.com/life/a36479941/juneteenth-food-traditions/
The issue is having just fried chicken and watermelon, which are tied to extremely racist stereotypes. If they’d been part of a meal then there would be no issue (fried chicken and watermelon are both extremely delecious…) but they weren’t.
Looks to me like BBQ chicken would have been more appropriate, but I’m a white guy, so I’m going to say that I have no place picking a corporate Juneteenth menu. I’m not even sure it’s appropriate for a corp to have a Juneteenth celebration - give people the freedom to recognize it however they like, without the oversight of corporate bosses. It’s like having a corporate seder for rosh hashanah or an eid al-Fitr: guaranteed to go badly.
If the corp does insist on having a party, they need to have members of the relevant community as prominent organizers, not some dude named Pezzuto. A white guy planning Juneteenth is going to be either condescending or cultural appropriation.
It’s like having a corporate seder for rosh hashanah or an eid al-Fitr: guaranteed to go badly.
Good point. Even if they stick within the “rules” the risk of it coming off poorly is too high, same as any cultural-specific holiday.
I’m not seeing fried chicken on that article though, just barbecue (which could be chicken or not, but wouldn’t be fried). Judging by the company response, someone over there is definitely being an asshole, even if there are elements that are traditional.
Maybe you’ll believe from a sistah
https://heysistah.com/juneteenth-freedom-day/
This is manufactured outrage.
The fuck it is. Black ppl aren’t a monolith with a hive mind. We don’t all agree on everything. Also there’s a huge difference between a majority white controlled mega corporation handing out Friday chicken and watermelon on juneteenth vs a private local celebration doing it. Especially since it’s not the ONLY thing they serve
Jesus Christ the fact this even has to be explained
Who the hell doesn’t agree that fried chicken is awesome, though?
Also, I bet you anything that if you did some digging into who it was at the company that was in charge of the concessions, it was a black person.
I’m guessing you didn’t bother to read either link 🤷
Jesus Christ the fact this even has to be explained
I don’t think it needs to be explained to anyone approaching this conversation in good faith. However, the person you’re replying to is just making a poor attempt to dismiss racism and gaslight people.
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What are you going to say when everyone finds out it was a black person who was in charge of the food and drink choices?
I have zero interest in entertaining your hypothetical situation. Find a different mark.
I’m not trying to be an asshole.
Maybe you’ll believe from a sistah
This is manufactured outrage
Mhmm. Not trying to be an asshole indeed.
To the commenter below - No, you didn’t have to explain to this asshole anything. They know what they are doing and saying. Considering how easy it is to block people in lemmy, I’m taking advantage of that right now by blocking them.
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You didn’t bother to read either link , remain ignorant
That’s rich considering that you clearly didn’t read your own first link. If you had you would’ve known it didn’t include fried chicken before it was pointed out by another user. But hey, let’s keep pretending you’re not just making a poor effort to dismiss and downplay blatant racism - and you definitely weren’t just including a random link and betting on people being too lazy to actually read it.
Every year some dipshit racists at a company somewhere in the US decide to serve fried chicken and watermelon on Juneteenth because they think they’re super clever and subtle and the moment the backlash hits the news there are thousands of people like you waiting in the wings to gaslight comment sections across social media.
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How many more do you want, cupcake?
Okay, we’re done here. Your blatant bad faith racist bullshit has received as much of my attention as you’re going to get.
Isn’t that considered the traditional meal that is served on Juneteenth?
https://www.oprahdaily.com/life/a36479941/juneteenth-food-traditions/
Nope, and you clearly did not read your own source.
If fried chicken and watermelon were the only things served, then there’s a problem. Otherwise, no.
Unless the other things served were grape drink and Newports.
Pshh, what is grape.
Purple, it’s like red drink but less punchy, more kicky
According to my friend who works there, it was red drink.
Eeesh, that’s an edge case.
Look, I understand, but that’s a damn good meal.
Look, I understand, but that’s a damn good meal.
Have you ever seen fried chicken before? Because this is shit:
Yeah, that looks like it’s been sitting out a week.
Racism will continue to exist so long as people continue to get offended by friggin food of all things.
Hey everyone! I don’t understand racism in the slightest but I’m sure going to tell everyone my opinions on it!
Fixed that for you.
Racism has very little to do with being offended. It goes much deeper than that. If all racism entailed were a few people being offended then we wouldn’t have a holiday based around the freeing of a enslaved people. If people continue to tell people to get over it, nothing will ever change because the healing can never begin.
Didn’t this happen last year, too? Feels like this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this headline.
Back in the mid-2000’s the cafeteria at Capital One did this but it was for a day in February to honor Black History Month. I remember getting a good laugh out of it, mostly because it was clearly done on purpose, for what reason I can’t say.
I could see this as a generic summer theme, but I mean come on.
Our office didn’t even recognize it. IIRC we did the last 2 years, not this year. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My company (quasi-government) changed Columbus Day being off to Juneteenth being off.
North Carolina being North Carolina. I am sure it made perfect sense to them.
Was it only fried chicken and watermelon?
