Employees at a Toyota location in Kansas City accused the corporation of being “disrespectful” when it served just watermelon as part of a Juneteenth celebration, according to FOX4.
According to FOX4, the firm held a Juneteenth celebration at a distribution center in Kansas City, Missouri, where two workers were shocked to see Toyota was only serving watermelons, a racist stereotype of Black people.
One Black employee who was shocked by the celebration allegedly asked someone within the diversity and inclusion team for help, which the person reportedly brushed the incident off.
“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,” said Kim McCarthy, an employee who has worked at the plant for 9 years.
The Biden administration declared Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021 to commemorate the formal end of slavery in the Confederate states.
The stereotype of Black people eating watermelon is rooted in historical racism and harmful caricatures that were used to dehumanize and mock Black people. During the era of slavery and even after emancipation, racist stereotypes were created to justify the subjugation and discrimination of Black people.
Watermelon was a popular and inexpensive fruit in the South, where many Black people lived and worked on plantations. As a result, it became connected with Black neighborhoods since many sold watermelon, allowing them to earn some money.
These stereotypes were frequently used to portray Black people as sluggish, childish, and inferior.
“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, an employee at Toyota, told FOX4.
Bolden and McCarthy both stated that the whole diversity and inclusion staff is white. When FOX4 questioned if it was accurate, Toyota’s corporate PR staff did not react.
