Employees at a Toyota distribution center in Kansas City, Missouri, are calling out the plant for only serving watermelon at its Juneteenth celebration. They made sure to bring the receipts in case anyone was skeptical.
Kim McCarthy, who has worked at the plant for almost a decade, added the situation was inappropriate.
“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,” she recounted.
McCarthy also confirmed the only food served was watermelon.
Bolden, who’s worked at the plant for four years, said that as a Black man, situations like this make it hard to come to 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,” Bolden said.
He added Black employees shouldn’t have to deal with such blatant racism in the workplace.
Bolden’s comments suggest this isn’t an isolated issue, and it’s not.
Both Bolden and McCarthy told Fox 4 everyone on the plant’s diversity and inclusion team is white. The outlet asked Toyota’s corporate communications team if that was true, and they did not respond. However, they sent the outlet a statement regarding the incident:
“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. 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.”
They added that bringing watermelon was approved by various leadership team members.
That isn’t enough for Bolden and McCarthy. They want to see the company take accountability for its misstep.
“I would like for management to at least apologize and accept that we are upset about it. They have yet to do that even,” McCarthy told Fox 4.
