Next month, the Black community as a whole will join in the annual celebration of Juneteenth to signify the ending of slavery in America. As expected, many brands have already began rolling out marketing plans to join in the glorious commemoration.
However, it was a special ice cream flavor being promoted by Walmart recently that had many people across social media up in arms over the audacity.
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As viral sensation @KevOnStage put it in a hilarious TikTok video (seen above), the commercialization of Juneteenth was bound to happen after it officially became a federal holiday last year. Still, it comes off as pretty bold for Walmart to release the racially-motivated ice cream flavor under its popularly affordable brand, Great Value. What’s even more shocking is that many believe the red velvet-inspired flavor was actually stolen from a Black-owned brand available at Target called Creamalicious.
Kev went a bit further in his now-viral TikTok video to prove that it’s not just ice cream getting the Juneteenth treatment. From party supplies and wine bottle designs to T-shirts conveniently marked down with reduced pricing, it appears that everyone’s favorite supercenter went a bit overboard in their attempt to be down with the culture. One Twitter user even accused Walmart of trying to “bastardize” Juneteenth with its use of Pan African and Ethiopian flag colors in the packaging designs. More on that later.
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While we’re sure Walmart had the best of intentions in its approach, there will always be topics that unfortunately are viewed as tone deaf when it hits the corporate level — Black culture is without a doubt one of them. Take a look below at a few people that agree:
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