Ikea store’s Juneteenth menu featuring fried chicken and watermelon angered employees at an Atlanta area store.
The store’s Juneteenth menu was created in honor of the first official Juneteenth federal holiday on the weekend of June 19.
The Juneteenth menu contained fried chicken, watermelon, macaroni and cheese and collard greens — all southern food staples.
The soul food was to be served to all employees on Saturday to “honor and persevere Black Americans” on Juneteenth, the store stated in an email sent to employees, according to WGCL CBS46 in Atlanta.
However, Black employees expressed outrage after discovering the menu was created by execs at Ikea’s corporate office.
“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 slave time,” one employee told CBS46.
Following the backlash, Ikea released a statement, saying “the meal was intended to be served to co-workers as an internal celebration, not customers.”
Some employees told CBS46 that no Black employees were involved with creating the menu, But Ikea stated that there were a few Black people on the menu selection committee.
