From t-shirts to watermelon salads, corporate America’s response to the recent federal holiday has generated backlash
With “Juneteenth” now a federal holiday, US retailers have taken the opportunity to buy products that mark black freedom. But activists say some of these products miss the mark, while others are racist.
President Joe Biden officially recognized June 19 – June 19 – as a federal holiday last year. Once a regional celebration unique to Texas, the date has to some extent been recognized by 46 states since the 1980s, and celebrates the day – June 19, 1865 – when the last black slaves in the South learned of their freedom after the Civil War. Biden’s announcement in 2021 came hours after the US Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit filed by former slaves in Africa against food giant Nestle.
While nearly three-quarters of black Americans support the holiday, only 45% of Hispanics and 38% of whites on board are a Gallup opinion poll found last month. A investigation last year found that only 7% of Republican voters supported Juneteenth becoming a national holiday, compared to 57% of Democrats.
With Dollar Tree selling gray, green and red “Juneteenth 1865” tank tops and T-shirts, and JCPenney offering wall hangings with abstract graphic designs and silhouettes of black women, a “diversity, justice and inclusion” consultant told Reuters that these retailers should use the holiday to promote black-owned sellers instead.
Celebrating Juneteenth is more complex than that “put a Black Power fist on something”, Director of Public Relations Brian Packer said.
Some corporate attempts to honor the holiday have been publicly repulsed. Walmart is offered trademarked “Juneteenth Ice Cream” earlier this summer, prompting social media users to accuse the company of trying to profit from black history. Even though the Juneteenth brand was actually owned by one black professor In Pennsylvania, Walmart pulled the ice cream from its stores and apologized for causing it “concern for some of our customers.”
Walmart similarly marked “Pride Month” by selling “Pride Glass.” Although the treat with brownie and cherry flavors was the subject of some ridicule online, it did not generate the same controversy as the dessert from Juneteenth, and according to some Twitter users, “The gay-flavored ice cream … is pretty tasty.”
Other Juneteenth-related campaigns have been dismissed as outright racist. Indianapolis Children’s Museum apologized last week to offer one “Juneteenth Watermelon Salad,” and promised to review the label more thoroughly in the future.
A local teacher told CNN that “people were very offended” when they saw the salad in the museum’s cafeteria. “So you decided ‘hey, let’s celebrate by perpetuating offensive stereotypes’” a Facebook user commented on a photo of the salad. “Did you really think this was a good idea?”
READ MORE: New Jersey’s governor signs legislation to mark Juneteenth that prevents landlords from requesting tenants’ criminal history
The museum was not the first organization accused of stereotyping black people on Juneteenth. A group of IKEA employees went away the job in Atlanta, Georgia last year when the Swedish furniture giant served fried chicken and watermelon as part of a “special menu” designed for “Honor the endurance of black Americans and acknowledge the progress that has not yet been made.”
The company later said that the menu was created “with the best of intentions” and was actually prepared from the outside “recommendations from black employees.”
In the midst of corporate cash-in, some black social media users have asked for support more directly in recent years – by requesting cash payments such as “damages.” Reporters who followed the story were apparently unable to distinguish whether the campaign was satirical or real.