Employees accused a Toyota plant in Kansas City of being disrespectful after it served only watermelon as a part of a Juneteenth celebration, according to FOX4 in Kansas City.
The company held a Juneteenth celebration at a Kansas City, Missouri, distribution center where watermelon was the only thing served to staff, according to FOX4.
Employees were offended by the celebration, with one employee referring to it as racism he should not have to encounter at work.
“A slap in the face, very disrespectful, you know. They preach Black lives matter, but kind of like they were making a joke out of us,” Jarret Bolden, a black employee, told FOX4. “Acknowledge us as people. Stop taking us as a joke.”
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Juneteenth was made a federal holiday by the Biden administration in 2021 in order to celebrate the official end of slavery in the Confederate states. Although former President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, hundreds of thousands of slaves were not made aware of their liberation after the Civil War had ended.
“To embrace the Juneteenth holiday, a summer intern coordinated a celebration activity that included a presentation focused on the history, activities and foods of Freedom Day,” a Toyota spokesperson said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This presentation was based on the individual’s personal experience celebrating the holiday with their family. In line with our core value of respect for people, Toyota supports educational activities that bring awareness and understanding of diverse cultures.”
The diversity and inclusion team at the plant is all white, employees told FOX4.
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“I turned around and asked a member that’s on the DNI team – which is the diversity and inclusion team – I said, ‘What the heck? This isn’t OK.’ And he just laughed,” another employee of the plant, Kim McCarthy, said to FOX4 about the reportedly all-white diversity and inclusion team.
Other large companies have also been accused of being insensitive over Juneteenth.
Walmart apologized in 2022 after complaints over its sale of Juneteenth flavored ice cream, with a label that read “share and celebrate African-American culture, emancipation, and enduring hope.”
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