New York University is currently under fire after a student blasted the university for serving an insensitive menu for Black History Month.

Residents in the Weinstein Passport Dining Hall of the university were offered food and drinks that included watermelon flavored water, ribs, and collard greens.

The student, Nia Harris, wrote on Facebook what she saw in the dining hall and how she felt about the situation. “This is what it’s like to be a black student at New York University…” she wrote. “In 2018, I literally had to explain why displaying watermelon and Kool-Aid in celebration of Black History Month was not only racially insensitive but just ignorant.”

Harris went on a small search to find out who was behind the idea of the menu and she was later put in touch with the head cook. Apparently, he told her that he worked with “cooks who are black” to come up with the dining options. Harris felt that the cook was blaming the black employees as a way of deflecting responsibility.

“Not only is this racially insensitive, this was just ignorant,” she concluded. “In 2018, there’s no excuse for intentional and deliberate disrespect. There’s no reason that anyone should be acting like they had no clue that this was insensitive. The cooled and watermelon were both removed. However, what does it say about our university if we just take this down and sweep this under the rug? This school prides items on being diverse and inclusive. Yet, we are displaying stereotypical food for Black History Month and telling black students that this is not racially insensitive.”

In response, the school’s food distributor, Aramark, has suspended the director of Weinstein dining, will conduct an investigation into how the menu items were chosen and will mandate sensitivity training for staff, according to a statement sent to WSN from Hamilton.

“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,” President Andrew Hamilton said in the apology. “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.”

Source: complex.com