What’s on the menu for Black History Month lunch? At this Miami Beach hotel, an apology
A recent employee event for Black History Month reportedly missed the mark at the W South Beach Hotel.
Last week, employees at the upscale property complained to the local NAACP about the menu, which included fried chicken and watermelon salad, NBC6 first reported.
“I believe we are more than watermelon and fried chicken. We have overcome years of inequities and still are fighting for the very same rights and privileges of others, so don’t put us in this box,” Daniella Pierre, president of the Miami-Dade chapter of the NAACP, told the station. “To reference watermelon, at least back in the Jim Crow days, back in our earlier history, it would be symbolic to those who are childish in nature, those who are unclean.”
The W hotel apologized for offending their employees and changed the menu.
“We deeply regret any offense it caused,” General Manager Rick Ueno said in a statement. “We believe that diversity, equity and inclusion is fundamental to how we do business.”
The Miami Herald has reached out for further comment about the menu choices.
February was designated Black History Month in 1976 to celebrate the end of slavery. The items on the hotel menu have long been used in racist stereotypes.
