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Toyota Kansas City Office Faces Backlash For Only Serving Watermelon Slices To Celebrate Juneteenth
Toyota Office Receives Backlash For Only Serving Watermelon Slices To Celebrate Juneteenth
A national employer is under fire from some of its own Kansas City workers after they said the company served only watermelon to celebrate Juneteenth. Those employees also said they have photos to prove it.
“Acknowledge us as people. Stop taking us as a joke,” said Jarret Bolden, an employee at Toyota.
It happened at the Toyota distribution center in Kansas City. Two workers spoke exclusively to Nexstar’s WDAF, and the company explained how it all happened. In pictures below provided to WDAF, you can see the only food offered was watermelon.
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“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,” said Kim McCarthy, who has worked at the plant for nine years.
WDAF asked McCarthy if they served anything else, and she responded, “No, just watermelon.”
Bolden has worked at the plant for four years. As a Black man, he said things like this make coming into this environment and having to work very difficult. “A slap in the face, very disrespectful, you know. They preach Black lives matter, but [it’s] kind of like they were making a joke out of us,” Bolden said.
Bolden said he shouldn’t have to encounter this sort of racism when he goes to work.
To compound the problem, both Bolden and McCarthy said the entire diversity and inclusion team is white. Toyota’s corporate communication team did not respond to WDAF when asked if that was true
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