Atlanta Ikea ‘Insulted’ Black Employees with Juneteenth Menu

An Atlanta Ikea is receiving backlash from its employees after releasing a menu that was meant to honor Juneteenth.

According to CBS46 on Tuesday, employees of the Midtown furniture store say the menu — reportedly comprising fried chicken, watermelon, mac and cheese, collard greens, and other items — was released last Friday as a way to “honor and persevere Black Americans” in light of the federal holiday, which celebrates the end of slavery.

However, staffers are not only accusing the menu of being written by non-Black employees but they also say the selection of foods is racially insensitive.

“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,” an anonymous employee said.

Employees were so outraged by the menu that a reported 33 people called out from work.

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

Following the callouts, the store manager released an internal memo apologizing for the snafu.

According to CBS News, the apology read in part, “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.”

Although the manager reportedly told employees, as well as CBS46, that the menu was changed, staffers say it was simply put off by a day.

“They just delayed the menu by a day. Thinking that everyone who was upset by the Juneteenth menu stayed home on Juneteenth and wouldn’t notice, which just added insult to injury.”

Per CBS46, the revised menu included collard greens, corn bread, mashed potatoes, and meatloaf.

The anonymous employee also took a photo of the food and told the outlet that “fried chicken, mac and cheese, collard greens” were still served the day after Juneteenth.