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You Are What You Eat
I try to be courteous and sensitive to the people around me, and I take no pleasure in causing anyone offense. But this item posted by our friend Ed Driscoll, has got me a bit perplexed.
This was posted yesterday at the Daily Caller:
A California university says it was bad taste to serve chicken and waffles on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Officials at the University of California, Irvine, say the menu of stereotypical black food was served on Jan. 17 — the first day of the school’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. symposium.
The dining hall advertised the meal as an “MLK Holiday Special.”
The co-chairman of the school’s Black Student Union and another student lodged formal complaints.
University spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon tells the Los Angeles Times that the cafeteria staff made a last-minute decision about the menu. She says the intention was to offer holiday comfort food. The company that runs the cafeteria says it will conduct cultural sensitivity training for its chefs and managers.
What I don’t understand: Is this a fake controversy, perpetuated by those who seem to delight in taking offense in anything and everything? Or is this truly a glaring incident of cultural insensitivity? Next question: Would it be culturally insensitive of me to serve burritos at a dinner party in honor of Cesar Chavez day?
Published in General
You said (#45 above), “in this one case, I do think that somebody was being racist towards black people.” Whom did you mean? And do you draw a distinction between saying someone “is being racist” and saying that person “is racist”? ·Jan 31 at 3:15pm
I’m not sure if there’s a difference between doing something racist and being a racist, and I don’t intend to argue that point otherwise.
But I’m more than happy to admit the error on my part when I said that somebody was being racist in this case. I didn’t know that for a fact, and it’s probably not true. I shouldn’t have said that. I should have said that whoever suggested the chicken and waffle idea to the chef did so in bad taste, and that the chef acted in bad taste by putting it on the menu.
I hope I’ve sufficiently satisfied the language police.
The Bay Area has a fast-food chain called Der Wienerschnitzel, featuring hot dogs and sausages.
They used to have radio ads with a jingle that went:
Der Wienerschnitzel, Wienerschnitzel
Dis mus be da place
Just drive right in and put a juicy hot dog in your face
And it was accompanied with a tuba!
As a person of German descent, this rank ethnic slur caused me such unbearable anguish that every time I heard it, I had to pull to the side of the road and weep with rage.
But then, I’m a sensitive guy….
Well Kenneth, you definitely don’t want to watch this hilarious World War II Donald Duck cartoon.
See what I mean about tubas? Despicable.
It’s bad when someone takes offense at being served a particular dish.
It’s worse when someone takes offense at other people eating a particular dish.
Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud told Future News television on Saturday that Lebanon will respond to the Israeli challenge and will prepare a new plate of hummus in the spring, possibly at the Fatima Gate along the Israeli-Lebanese border, to break the newly-set Israeli world record for the biggest hummus plate.
Abboud said that Israel acknowledged that the hummus is a Palestinian dish rather than an Israeli one. He added that Lebanon considers hummus to be an “oriental dish.”
According to Abboud, Lebanon exported the first hummus dish in 1959.
Israel yesterday broke the Lebanese record that was set last October, when cooks in an Arab town near Jerusalem whipped up more than four metric tons of hummus.
Now you’re stepping on the toes of my hillbilly kin. Fie on you, sah!
What? No Asian-food theme day?
Perhaps the culinary powers that be would cringe at how crusty Vietnam vets might refer to that…. ·Jan 31 at 1:29pm
Actually, we’re all encouraged to participate in celebrations and cultural sensitivity for Hispanic Heritage Month, Women’s History Month, and Asian-Pacific Islander Month. Yay.
The Army has fixed the Wednesday-Thursday menu because our force has a large proportion, more than in the general culture, of blacks and hispanics. When the Asian-Pacific Islander folks catch up I’m sure we’ll have adobo, yakisoba, phu bowls, and dumplings on Tuesdays.
At least “soul food” is traditional African American cuisine and not some stereotypical thing that people just assume black people eat. ·Jan 31 at 3:01pm
So is chicken and waffles. Which is why Gladys Knight opened Gladys Knight and Ron Winans’ Chicken and Waffles in Atlanta. For an abbreviated look at chicken and waffles in this country and its special pertinence to historical black culture, please see here, here, and here. It’s my understanding that chicken and waffles was chosen for the meal plan because of its special tie to the Harlem Renaissance, and all the beauty and accomplishment from that special time. What’s not to celebrate about that?
Somebody on Rico – an Editor or member- recently commented that the prosperity of our nation enables citizens to indulge (sometimes, obsessively so) in the analysis of “luxury issues.”
This *food fight* instigated by BSU members at UCI qualifies as one such indulgence and leads me to wonder if perhaps, these students are not challenged enough by their current college curriculum?
Good point, Elizabeth. It also bears noting that despite (or perhaps because of) its presence in conservative Orange County, UC-Irvine is a hard left school even by the august standards of the University of California system. The dean of the new law school is none other than Erwin Chemerinsky (full disclosure: I used to be Erwin’s editor, and he’s a terrific guy … but he’s crazy) and the Islamic population makes it virtually impossible for a pro-Israel speaker to open his mouth on campus. Check out Daniel Pipes’ attempt in 2007.
Protest is their Means of Production.
A surf shop in Laguna Beach displayed a likeness of MLK dressed in a wetsuit and offered 20% off all black products for the day.
Apparently, the numerous black members of the surfing community were not amused. ·Jan 31 at 1:46pm
Ok, Kenneth, you have to give it up on this one… was it Hobie or Boardriders?
Kenneth: By the way, there was another MLK controversy in Orange County that week.
A surf shop in Laguna Beach displayed a likeness of MLK dressed in a wetsuit and offered 20% off all black products for the day.
Apparently, the numerous black members of the surfing community were not amused. ·Jan 31 at 1:46pm
Thalia Surf Shop. And they’re just as contrite as they can be, dude.