The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis has come under fire for offering a pre-packaged watermelon salad as part of its Juneteenth menu, an option criticized online as offensive after a photo of the salad circulated on social media.
The outrage over the circulated photo comes as the museum invites the public to its Juneteenth Jamboree, which features live performances and community artists.
Also known as the “largest children’s museum in the world”, is being accused of being racially insensitive to the inclusion of “June watermelon salad” on the menu before the national holiday.
Visitors were outraged when they noticed a $10 watermelon salad for a June date, which many criticized as “racially insensitive”.
This came to their attention after one of the visitors named Jackson Moon, officially known as Jackson Adams, took to his Facebook account and shared a picture of a salad with a label that read “Juneteenth Watermelon Salad”, and captioned it, “Racially insensitive salads. NOBODY BLACK ASKED FOR THIS!”
Soon after the post was shared, people took to social media to express their outrage. After facing widespread criticism online, The Indianapolis Children’s Museum issued an apology.
“As a museum, we apologize and acknowledge the negative impact that stereotypes have on communities of color. The salad has been removed from the menu. We are currently reviewing how we may best convey these stories and traditions during this year’s Juneteenth celebration as well as making changes around how future food selections are made by our food service provider,” the apology read.
“Our food service provider uses the food and beverage menu to commemorate and raise awareness of holidays like Juneteenth. The team that made this selection included their staff members who based this choice of food on their own family traditions,” the statement further read.
However, it didn’t go down well with the netizens.
One said, “Sure apologizing for invoking racist stereotypes for a holiday celebrating Black America’s release from slavery. But the Indianapolis Children’s museum working to keep Black families as their neighbors would be better.”
Another said, “So, the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis thought it would be kosher to create a “Juneteenth Watermelon Salad.” … no, we’re not accepting y’all’s apology. Y’all know what y’all be doing! I hate y’all.”
Source: AWM
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