https://www.dailywire.com/news/27517/two-black-cooks-fired-nyu-making-racist-meal-paul-bois#exit-modal

Two Aramark employees who reports indicate were African American have been fired by the food service after preparing a meal at NYU during Black History Month that was deemed "racially insensitive."

According to CBS News, the two employees were fired as a result of a complaint by a sophomore, who says she confronted the head cook about the "racially insensitive" meal but was "lied to" and ultimately "ignored." The meal, the student claimed in a Facebook post, consisted of barbecue ribs, collard greens, watermelon-flavored water, Kool-Aid, and mac and cheese.

"Sophomore Nia Harris, who is black, said the head cook dismissed her objections and told her black employees planned the menu," reports CBS News. "She posted about the menu and her experience on Facebook, saying she 'was lied to, placated, and ignored.'"

"This is what it's like to be a black student at New York University," Nia wrote in her Facebook post. "You go to a dining hall during February and you see 'Black History Month Meal' plastered outside the entrance. You walk inside the dining hall only to find ribs, collard greens, and mac and cheese.

"In 2018 I literally had to explain why displaying watermelon and koolaid in celebration of Black History Month was not only racially insensitive but just ignorant."

Both Nia and The New York Times claim that the head cook told her black people planned the menu. "The head cook also told Ms. Harris that the employees who planned the menu were black," reports the Times.

"I talked to the head cook who told me 'black people put this menu together' and assured me that it was not racially insensitive," Nia said.

In response to the public condemnation of the meal, Aramark issued a statement apologizing and announcing that they fired the employees responsible for "independently" making the decision to put together the menu. Here's the full statement:

We have zero tolerance for any employee who does not adhere to our values or contradicts our longstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion. Employees at NYU who acted independently and did not follow our approved plan for the celebration of Black History Month have been terminated and are no longer with the company. We are extremely disappointed by this regrettable situation and apologize to the entire NYU community and communities everywhere for their insensitive and offensive actions. We are re-training all our NYU campus employees to ensure an incident like this is not repeated.

The incident also prompted a public apology from NYU President Andrew Hamilton, who said the menu was "inexcusably insensitive." Here is Hamilton's full statement, which includes another statement from Aramark saying they had suspended the director of Weinstein dining for "insensitive and offensive actions":

We were shocked to learn of the drink and food choices that our food service provider -- Aramark -- offered at the Weinstein dining hall as part of Black History Month. It was inexcusably insensitive. That error was compounded by the insensitivity of the replies made to a student who asked Aramark staff on site how the choices were made.

In response, Aramark has suspended the director of Weinstein dining, is investigating how this happened, will be putting in place sensitivity training for staff, and has rightly issued an apology:

"We apologize for an inexcusable menu mistake that occurred at Downstein. We are extremely disappointed by the insensitive and offensive actions taken by one of our employees who did not follow policy and processes. The individual acted independently in a way that runs counter to our values and compromised our longstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion. We have suspended the employee pending a full investigation. We are also re-training all employees to ensure a regrettable incident like this is not repeated. Again, we apologize for the mistake and commit to do better in the future." -- Victoria Pasquale, Regional Vice President, Aramark

We are grateful to the students who brought this to the attention of the University. We are extremely dissatisfied with Aramark's actions in this instance. The drink and food choices for this meal were not discussed with NYU beforehand. NYU's dining administrators will insist that Aramark put in place a mechanism to avoid a repeat of yesterday's episode, such as consulting the existing student advisory body and campus cultural groups about the menu for special events.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35474899)

am I done here?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35480239)

I hate college millennials.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35474958)

where the fuck are the Trump Trains???

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35475150)

this entire theater and hand-wringing and people losing their jobs about FUCKING RIBS VEGGIES AND MAC AND CHEESE has me more irate than anything else libs have done for months

when the FUCK can we start saying to these activist groups: "Sit down, shut the fuck up, and eat your greens."?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35475167)

We are re-training all our NYU campus employees to ensure an incident like this is not repeated.

We are re-training all our NYU campus employees to ensure an incident like this is not repeated.

We are re-training all our NYU campus employees to ensure an incident like this is not repeated.

We are re-training all our NYU campus employees to ensure an incident like this is not repeated.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35475198)

lol what the fuck would this training entail. Like, are they going to hand out a list of each ethnicity and what foods are Not Okay?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35476231)

libs are scum

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35475411)

They should have been serving crepes and green tea, in honor of Maybelline lecrroix, the 1/64 Chinese octoroon from New Orleans who taught her niggerines to look both ways before crossing the street

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35475786)

Are all college students like this? Of course not. If they were, one shudders to think what they’d make of the Ramen noodle industry. Still. Better, more authentic, more flavorful foods aren’t necessarily bad.

It’s a cause you might support!

But there are no longer complaints or gripes or suggestions. Only outrage. “Hey, putting ketchup on the linguini isn’t really Italian night,” becomes, “You are oppressing me with your white privilege.” Why? Because it works. Saying that to a college administrator is like telling a self conscious girl that she looks fat in her jeans, or telling a young fella that size really does matter and, sorry pal, you don’t measure up.

And threatening to do these things publicly.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35476332)

What a braindead zombie. I wish I were the dean of one of these schools and that I could just publicly shame the "offended" students and move for their expulsion. Too bad everyone in a position of power is a coward, except Trump.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35476398)

--

NYU Officials Address Aramark Firing, ‘Black History Month’ Meal During GCOMMS Meeting

“It was actually explicitly requested that we protect and make certain that there would not be a course of action against the cooks and the frontline staff.”

By Izzie Ramirez and Arimeta Diop

After NYU made national headlines last week for a Black History Month meal that was deemed ‘insensitive’ by university president Andrew Hamilton, NYU’s Center for Multicultural and Educational Programming hosted a talk with Governance Council of Minority and Marginalized Students Friday night.

The group, which gives student clubs access to the administration, discussed a myriad of issues relating to Aramark, the school’s food provider. The company provides food service to universities and private prisons across the country. Aramark has received criticism from student activist groups in the past for their involvement in private prisons –– which was the subject of a PBS investigation that detailed gross abuse in their service in prisons.

In response to the controversial meal — ribs, collard greens, mac and cheese, watermelon flavored water and Kool-Aid — Aramark moved to suspend and subsequently fire the head chef and an operations manager at Downstein, who are both white, for breaking their company protocol for “arbitrary” menu changes, according to Lisa Coleman, the NYU Chief Diversity Officer, and Senior Vice President Global Inclusion and Diversity, Strategic Innovation. The employees were fired without conversation with NYU.

“Part of the reason that management at Aramark decided to fire the head chef and the manager is because they sent out a correspondence to all Aramark employees, stating that you cannot and must not change the menu based on arbitrary decision-making processes locally,” Coleman said. “You have them [the menus] vetted through whatever institution and through head corp. They did not do that. The management on site made a decision to frame this soul food menu, so that is why Aramark decided to fire them.”

Also in attendance was Monroe Francis, the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Diversity Initiatives, and Leah Lattimore, the Director of the Center for Education and Multicultural Programming.

The panel asked students what they would want in a statement from Hamilton after sophomores Nia Harris and Kayla Eubanks said his apology was unclear.

“I want — the people who were fired — I want it be clarified who they were, what their positions were, that they were not people of color because that’s a big misconception,” Harris explained. “I want him to state that on this campus, he values Black students.”

Eubanks then interjected, saying the statement unclear as to who was at fault and what NYU is going to do moving forward.

“When I read the statement, it seemed pretty vague,” Eubanks said. “I want him to say that we at NYU acknowledge that this was wrong, we do not agree with it and we’re literally taking the side with the students. I want him to directly say that.”

Students’ suggestions included specifying that students never called for any firing, for the statement to identify their professional titles and their responsibilities, and for the statement to clarify the exact reason the employees were fired.

On Friday, The Daily Wire published a story with a headline that originally read, “Two Black Cooks Fired at NYU for Making ‘Racist’ Meal.” The story and headline have since been corrected, but misinformation had spread across various social media platforms as a slew of news organizations and media professionals reposted the story.

“At no point in time in the meeting I had with your peers did they ever say — immediately after the incident happened — that ‘we want to have these people fired,’” Coleman said. “I will go on record, in my conversation with your peers as we were doing a follow-up meeting, an investigatory meeting, was that ever said. That was never said and I will even go further to say that it was actually explicitly requested that we protect and make certain that there would not be a course of action against the cooks and the frontline staff.”

NYU’s contract with Aramark will be in the review period in August. Coleman said NYU has had issues with Aramark recently, such as the ‘C’ health inspection grade in Lipton Hall, and would consider switching to a different company. However, switching companies would require a complete change to the dining hall system.

On this NYU’s Incarceration to Education Coalition issued a statement regarding Aramark’s participation in private prisons, which has a history of institutional racism, and how NYU should “divest.”

“Moving forward, the only proper option is to divest from Aramark, and replace them with a company holding no investments in the mass incarceration of black and brown bodies,” the IEC said in their statement. “Anything short of this is simply unacceptable. If President Hamilton truly intends to deliver on NYU’s ‘longstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion,’ he must award the NYU dining contract to a company unaffiliated wit private prisons.”

The Black Student Union (BSU), in their #StayWoke Sunday correspondence to members, a weekly email that aims to summarizes recent news in the Black & Diasporic community, also released a statement regarding the Weinstein meal.

“To reiterate: watermelon, the fruit, is not the issue,” the statement read. “The issue is that someone went out of their way to purchase out-of-season watermelon to serve at a meal designed to celebrate Black students and their culture … NYU needs to begin asking the membership of the Black Student Union and the memberships of various Black student organizations how we would like to see NYU celebrate Black History Month as well as be open to adapting to the times as they change.”

Student groups across campus are making it clear that there is a larger conversation to be had regarding transparency.

“There was never a desire nor demand to terminate any employees expressed by any student or student organization,” read the GCOMMS statement, released Sunday. “We simply wanted the truth and an explanation. To demonize students for inquiring about the situation, instead of how the institutions at large responded, is unfathomable.”

The full statements from the Incarceration Education Coalition, Black Student Union, and the Governance Council of Minority and Marginalized Students are posted below.

University Spokesperson John Beckman did not immediately return request for comment.

From Matthew at the IEC:

“The BHM meal displays an unacceptable level of racial insensitivity by Aramark staff, and President Hamilton’s response is insufficient both in terms of recognizing NYU administration’s role in this situation, and explicitly supporting the students who brought awareness to this issue and thus incurred the harassment of racist online trolls. IEC believes that Aramark’s substantial investment in the racist, morally repugnant private prison industry should have prevented them from winning the NYU Dining contract in the first place — administration, and administration alone, bears responsibility for inviting a corporation with strong ties to institutional racism onto NYU’s campus.

Moving forward, the only proper option is to divest from Aramark, and replace them with a company holding no investments in the mass incarceration of black and brown bodies. Anything short of this is simply unacceptable. If President Hamilton truly intends to deliver on NYU’s “longstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion,” he must award the NYU dining contract to a company unaffiliated wit private prisons.”

https://nyulocal.com/nyu-officials-address-aramark-firing-black-history-month-meal-during-gcomms-meeting-aeb918d2424f

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35489895)

“To reiterate: watermelon, the fruit, is not the issue,” the statement read. “The issue is that someone went out of their way to purchase out-of-season watermelon to serve at a meal designed to celebrate Black students and their culture"

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35490689)

NEVER GIVE IN TO LIBS

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35492126)

By the way, I will guarantee you that the cooks that thought of this still 100% feel like shit and like they were personally insulted. Also I'm willing to bet that the new head chef and manager are going to be shittier than their old ones.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35492343)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35492150)

lol @ anyone that borrows money to go there

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35492181)

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/nyu-apologizes-racist-black-history-month-menu

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3902365&forum_id=2#35492677)