“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.
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/
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
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.
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 🤷
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.
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.
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.
Nope, and you clearly did not read your own source.