A New York school has apologised after serving what it called an "inexcusably insensitive" lunch on the first day of Black History Month.
Students at Nyack Middle School were served fried chicken, waffles and watermelon on 1 February.
The foods have been used as racist tropes against African Americans.
Officials from the school said its food supplier - Aramark - had changed the planned meal of cheesesteaks, broccoli and fruit.
"We are extremely disappointed by this regrettable situation and apologise to the entire Nyack community for the cultural insensitivity displayed by our food service provider," Principal David Johnson wrote in a 2 February letter to parents.
The foods the supplier picked "reinforce negative stereotypes concerning the African American community", he said.
Honore Santiago, a student at the school, said she was surprised when she saw the meal in her cafeteria.
"They were asking people if they want watermelon and I remember being confused because it's not in season," the sixth-grade student told local news outlet WABC.
She said she told her mother when she got home and both were angered by the lunch. "I just hope that they won't do it again, at a different school or my school," she told the BBC's US partner CBS News.
School food vendor Aramark apologised for the incident, which it called an "inexcusable mistake" that "never should have happened".
The food vendor has sparked a backlash over meal choices in the past.
In 2018, New York University severed ties with the company after a Black History Month lunch it offered at the university included red Kool-Aid and watermelon-flavoured water as well as other foods that have been used as racist tropes.
And in 2011, the food vendor served fried chicken and waffles to students at the University of California on Martin Luther King Jr Day.
Watermelon became a racist stereotype during the Jim Crow era in the US, according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The fruit was once a symbol of self-sufficiency among southern African Americans who grew and sold watermelons after emancipation, but it was later used as a disparaging symbol.
A New York school has apologised after serving what it called an "inexcusably insensitive" lunch on the first day of Black History Month. Students at Nyack Middle School were served fried chicken, waffles and watermelon on 1 February.
How teaching Black history in schools became a national controversy Across the country, there are ongoing controversies over how and if Black history should be taught in classrooms. Protests have ensued after a Missouri based school board dropped elective Black history and literature courses at its high schools.
Celebrate: Highlight achievements and contributions, including pre-colonial history and profiles of contemporary figures your students will recognize from politics, education, pop culture, sports, or other areas. While historicizing is important, avoid focusing solely on slavery and Jim Crow.
Rosenwald schools were educational facilities built with the assistance of the Rosenwald rural school building program, an initiative to narrow racial schooling gaps in the South by constructing better, more-accessible schools for African Americans.
Ruby Bridges - First Black Child to Integrate an All-White Elementary School in the South. On November 14, 1960, at the age of six, Ruby Bridges changed history and became the first African American child to integrate an all-white elementary school in the South.
Since 2019, partly in response to the murder of George Floyd, at least four reliably Democratic states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine and Rhode Island — have passed laws requiring instruction on Black history, according to a database maintained by the research agency Education Commission of the States.
“When I was going to school,” he said, “I began to be bugged by the teaching of American history because it seemed that that history had been taught without cognizance of my presence.” Baldwin's thoughts echoed those of many before and after him.
Before Brown, Black teachers constituted 35% to 50% of the teacher workforce in segregated states. Today, Black people account for just 6.7% of America's public K-12 teachers, even as Black children make up more than 15% of public school students.
Finally, African American history is important because it encourages better citizenship. It emphasizes the ties that bind together individuals, communities, and generations. It illuminates the struggles to redefine and expand constitutional and human rights, both for Black and non-Black people.
The fried chicken stereotype is an anti-African American racist trope that has its roots in the American Civil War and traditional slave foods. The popularity of fried chicken in the Southern United States and its portrayal in films like The Birth of a Nation contributed to the development of this stereotype.
Watermelon production in the United States involves at least eight states across the country, highlighting the widespread cultivation of this refreshing fruit. Leading the pack is Florida, producing over 9,000 CWT (hundredweight) of watermelons annually, followed closely by Georgia and California.
Cultivation spread across Asia and Europe and was brought to the Americas by colonists and the slave trade from Africa. On the Asian continent, watermelons can be traced through India, China (Uighurs) and into Japan possibly as early as the 8th century AD.
The African Free School was a school for children of slaves and free people of color in New York City. It was founded by members of the New York Manumission Society, including Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, on November 2, 1787. Many of its alumni became leaders in the African-American community in New York.
Ruby Nell Bridges Hall (born September 8, 1954) is an American civil rights activist. She was the first African American child to attend formerly whites-only William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis on November 14, 1960.
Sixty-five years ago, in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, the Supreme Court determined that segregated schools are inherently unequal. Despite this, schools in NYC have remained segregated by race and socioeconomic status , as in many districts around the country.
In February 2018, Aramark served a meal at New York University in honor of Black History Month. That included barbecue ribs, cornbread, collard greens, Kool-Aid and watermelon-flavored water, the New York Times reported. Aramark said it fired the employees who planned the meal without consulting the school's staff.
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