Children’s Museum making changes following ‘Juneteenth Watermelon Salad’ controversy
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis says it will change some of its review processes after its contracted food service provider offered a “Juneteenth Watermelon Salad” for sale in the food court.
On June 3, the museum shared a Facebook post promoting its annual Juneteenth Jamboree event. In the post’s comments, a Facebook user shared a photo of the salad and its label.
Juneteenth, short for June 19, is a holiday marking the day in 1865 when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to make sure that enslaved people be freed. It became a federal holiday in 2021.
In a statement posted Tuesday on Facebook, the museum said the prepackaged salad was “immediately and permanently” removed from the menu.
“We want to say how deeply sorry we are for the hurt this situation has caused,” the museum said.
The salad was part of a specific menu by the food service vendor designed to raise awareness about holidays like Juneteenth, according to the museum, and the “inappropriate name and label given to the salad” was not reviewed by museum staff.
“We learned a really hard lesson that oversight must play an important role in every museum relationship,” the museum said. “We have learned that we need to employ a more robust review process with our vendors. Our plan is to evaluate our processes and develop a strategy to prevent this from happening again.”
Once the revised process is in place, it will be placed on the museum’s website.
“We are an imperfect institution, but we are committed to improvement and will work tirelessly to regain your trust. The entire museum family, from our staff and volunteers to our board of trustees, is fully dedicated to making this right.”
Chrystal Ratcliffe, president of the Greater Indianapolis NAACP, issued a statement Tuesday afternoon regarding the museum and its Juneteenth celebration:
“As news of Indianapolis Children’s Museum Juneteenth watermelon display captured the attention of the community, we at the NAACP view this as a teachable moment. In particular, we feel this moment allows us to learn the importance of context and perception in an organization’s message.
“As we understand it, the caterer — a person of color — sought to embrace Juneteenth and how this event was honored within their own family. However, in trying to make the point, they missed the historic context of how watermelon has been used in racist ways to demean African-American people. In reality, the watermelon is a natural fruit for human beings, dating back more than 5,000 years to the Kalahari Desert in South Africa. Watermelon seeds and paintings have been discovered in Egyptian tombs more than 4,000 years old. The racist watermelon stereotype was perpetuated by white supremacists and blackface minstrel shows in the Jim Crow era, which portrayed Black people as overly fond of watermelon in ways that made them appear ignorant, simple-minded and lazy. While the caterer may have tried to convey a message of togetherness while enjoying a nutritious, healthy fruit, they miscalculated how the item would be perceived by the community within the museum’s Juneteenth celebration.
“We look forward to working with the Indianapolis Children’s Museum to increase awareness of the holiday and continue to share the traditions that bring us as a community closer together.”