CNN and Business Insider in the U.S. reported on Aramark, a U.S. food company that has been embroiled in controversy over “unintentional racism.” The controversy over racism was raised on the grounds that New York’s Nyaek Middle School provided watermelon and chicken for student meals on the 1st of this month.It was also controversial for then-US President Barack Obama to recommend toothpaste that smelled like “watermelon.”
In the United States, watermelons are used as a representative racist meme. In the United States before the Civil War, watermelon was a representative fruit that African slaves sold for a living. Even after the abolition of slavery in the U.S. in the late 1860s, the prejudice that it is a “dumping” fruit enjoyed by low-income black people with low incomes is widespread.In 2014, during Barack Obama’s presidency, the Boston Herald published a cartoon that broke into Obama’s bathtub and mocked him, saying, “Have you ever used watermelon-flavored toothpaste?” and apologized after controversy. This is also an example of referring to “watermelon” to disparage the first black president of the United States.
Fried chicken is also mentioned as a racist element in a similar context. Rumor has it that chicken also originated from food that cotton farm landowners provided to black slaves at a cheap price in the past.Citizens are protesting in front of a police station in Memphis, Tennessee, on the 29th (local time) over the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old black man who was killed in a mass assault by police. Nicholas, who suffered from Crohn’s disease, a rare disease, was mass assaulted by police in Memphis on the 7th and was taken to a hospital, but died of a heart attack three days later.The date when the meals were provided was also significant. Chicken and watermelon were served as school meals on the first day of February, Black History Month in the United States. Black History Month originated in 1926 when American historian Carter Woodson designated the second week of February as the “State of Black History” to honor the struggles and achievements of blacks.As the controversy flared up, Onore Santiago, a student at Nyack Middle School, told WABC, “I was asked if I wanted to eat watermelon (from Aramark), a catering company, and I was a little confused because it was not fruit season.” The school criticized, “It is incredibly absurd to provide chicken as a main menu and watermelon as a dessert from the first day of Black History Month.” In response, a spokesman for Aramark posted an official apology, saying, “We acknowledge that it was an inappropriate lunch menu.”
JENNIFER KIM
ASIA JOURNAL
