As calls grow for Juneteenth to be designated a national holiday, Amazon is getting angry feedback for offering workers in a Chicago warehouse chicken and waffles to celebrate — a gesture seen as a tokenized and “racist form of celebration.”
The Chicago warehouse, known as DCH1, told employees on Thursday that it would be “honoring the Black community by supporting local Black businesses” and would offer employees chicken and waffles on June 19, CNBC reported.
June 19, 1865, is the day slaves in Texas found out they were free, almost two-and-a-half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth has been celebrated ever since, often with food.
The warehouse leader who organized chicken and waffles had “good intentions to honor Juneteenth by supporting a local small business owned by a member of the Black community,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC.
However, a private online group for Chicago Amazon workers — DCH1 Amazonians United Facebook Page — said they were angered and insulted by the “racist form of celebration.” Some said Amazon could show support for Black workers by making Juneteeth a paid company holiday.
“So much for supporting your Black/African American employees,” one post read. “Where’s the Solidarity in that? We demand a paid holiday, not some damn chicken.”
“As people throughout the world are rising up against cops, corporations and this anti-Black capitalist system we live under, Amazon mocks us with this racist form of ‘celebration’”, another posted.
One person asked, “Should I bring the watermelon too?”
Warehouse workers — often largely African American — have long complained about working conditions at Amazon, most recently during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Chris Smalls, a 31-year-old management assistant at Amazon, was outraged at the lack of protection against covid-19 at the Staten Island facility in New York and organized a walkout. In turn, Amazon fired Smalls.
Roberto Clack, associate director of Warehouse Workers for Justice, said Amazon’s “tokenized” messages in support of Juneteenth and the Black Lives Matter movement ring hollow.
“I just think it’s insincere,” Clack told CNBC. “It’s no secret that a large portion of that workforce is Black.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden was accused of being “insulting and awful” in January for allegedly planning a “Fried Chicken Wednesday” community campaign event at a Columbia, South Carolina HBCU.
