They made more than just coffee table books and brutalist architecture, they also made furniture, and no place better exemplifies this than Ikea.  Its the Scandinavian house of form follows function CRAP.  And yet
I am typing this currently on an Ikea desk.

This is my review of Tired Hands Brewing Migrating Eyes Saison:

Ikea apparently offended people with their Juneteenth menu at the Atlanta location.  I’ve been to that location, as it is where I picked up the Ikea kitchen island/stand/thing to compliment my Ikea desk.  It also compliments my Ikea wrap around bookshelves, and Ikea nightstand
at any rate their lunch menu included fried chicken and watermelon.

“You cannot say serving watermelon on Juneteenth is a soul food menu when you don’t even know the history. They used to feed slaves watermelon,” an anonymous employee told Atlanta’s CBS 46. “It caused a lot of people to be upset. People actually wanted to quit. People weren’t coming back to work.”

But where would they get the idea this is in any way proper?  Lets consult THE INTERNET.

From eHow:

Pies such as sweet potato, peach and blackberry and watermelon, easily available to former slaves in Texas, also continue to remain popular.

From Serious Eats:

You’ll find watermelon as a part of almost any spread, whether cubed, sliced, or even pickled. A watermelon, feta, and mint salad is a sweet and salty way to incorporate the ingredient into your menu

From care.com (one of those “how to explain to kids” sites):

Abari’s household incorporates the aesthetic and flavors of freedom through treats like symbolic red foods and drinks like hibiscus tea, watermelon and strawberry crisp and adds the sentiment through reading activities.

Watermelon

Watermelon

Watermelon

Watermelon

Strawberry Soda Water
wait that’s just Agua Fresca!  I’m playing the race card!

Not really.  The issue at hand here is it does have a historical role, but not exactly in the way the person quoted in the NY Post seems to believe.  Like anything with history, its complicated.

Indigenous to North Africa and the Middle East, melons were considered a delicacy in antiquity.  Why?  Consider the region.  Its a fruit that doubles as a natural receptacle for water.  This was a actually a crop brought to the Americas on slave ships.  It grows nearly everywhere with relative ease and quite frankly they’re delicious.  Seeds were even given out to freed slaves during Reconstruction by the Freedmen’s Bureau.  The reason being its easy to cultivate but more importantly it was a delicacy during that time.  This allowed Black farmers a cash crop from which they could find economic independence, that could avoid the rent seeking from other economic interests in the South at the time (i.e. cotton or tobacco).

Success unfortunately led to envy, and the stereotype began to take its familiar form.  When it fell out of favor with “higher classes,” watermelon became associated with Black farmers growing and subsequently eating it.  Note the story at this link about the “Poor Arab’s Feast” and how it aligns with the stereotypes of Blacks.

The watermelon, noted a British officer stationed in Egypt in 1801, was “a poor Arab’s feast,” a meagre substitute for a proper meal. In the port city of Rosetta, he saw the locals eating watermelons “ravenously 
 as if afraid the passer-by was going to snatch them away,” and watermelon rinds littered the streets. There, the fruit symbolized many of the same qualities as it would in post-emancipation America: uncleanliness because eating watermelon is so messy. Laziness, because growing watermelons is so easy, and it’s hard to eat watermelon and keep working—it’s a fruit you have to sit down and eat. Childishness, because watermelons are sweet, colourful, and devoid of much nutritional value. And unwanted public presence, because it’s hard to eat a watermelon by yourself.  These tropes made their way to America, but the watermelon did not yet have a racial meaning.

Um
I’m pretty sure Arabs are a race.  But hey, its not me who decides if Ikea is racist.  I can’t wait until eating tacos on Cinco de Mayo is frowned upon.

 

I personally do not care for watermelon.  I don’t care for the grainy texture, and I grew up with braces so picking seeds out of my teeth was less than pleasant.  I always liked peaches so this Saison from Alaska piqued my interest in that it incorporated peaches and apricots.  The base is more sour than usual but is counteracted by the scent of fresh peaches.  Nice attempt to be different. Tired Hands Brewing Migrating Eyes Saison:  3.5/5