Annual Black History Month Racial Incident

Apparently a private school in California decided to serve fried chicken, watermelon and cornbread as a black history month lunch menu.

http://news.msn.com/us/calif-school-apologizes-for-black-history-lunch-menu

 

That's a meal right there. :smt043:smt043:smt043

 

Are people that stupid? No doubt they are.

 

Yummy!

It's wrong but....:smt118lolol!

 

I wonder how much of it is deliberate stereotyping, or authentic celebration?

Sans the watermelon which is stupid, because I rarely ever see that at Black functions, but I have been to enough Black dinners/parties/reunions, etc to know that the staple food IS chicken, ribs, mac n cheese, cornbread, collard greens, sweet potato, fried fish of which I am proudly encouraged to devour on... I mean if they celebrated Columbus Day with pasta and meatballs, or Greek Day with Souvlaki/Gyros and feta and olives, should one be offended at that?

I think people look for anything to be offended by today, I bet if other cultures had their foods celebrated and the school declined to celebrate traditional Black food, there would some who would be offended at that.

Instead, whether this school was deliberate or genuinely sharing or not, it was easier to just GET OFFENDED, accuse instead of ask, and shame them into removing a celebration of foods that many Black families traditionally love to cook and eat.

 

Very interesting points here, and I believe you hit the nail on the head.

 

Sure plenty of Black folks love fried chicken (yum!) and watermelon (yuck!) They are the stereotypical "black people" foods. To put them up as the black history menu, just screams laziness. Schools don't operate in a vacuum, when kids see this kind of nonchalant stereotyping, it can stick with them.

 

In and of itself fried chicken and watermelon are simply harmless yet delicious foods. However, there is a derogatory history that goes along with associating Black Americans with chicken and watermelon.

During slavery, watermelon was a cheap food used to feed/hydrate "livestock" and fried chicken was a treat for slaves which was reserved for special occasions such as Christmas or Easter.

Imagery of "happy darkies" eating watermelon, strumming on banjoes and dancing a jig were used to dehumanize Black Americans as simpletons, lazy and child-like in intellect who deserved to be treated as 3/5ths of human beings who are content with their lower station in life and in positions of perpetual servitude. And these Jim Crow era images were used as tools to justify denying Black Americans the right to vote, fair wages, as well as many other rights and civil liberties.

I must add that I am not shocked by stories such as the one posted in the OP because ignorance and bigotry will always exist in one form or another. However, I reserve my outrage for acts that are far more egregious in nature.

 

It's a school lunch menu, not dinner at the Savoy. Schools usually default to the most lazy traditional/cultural meal while fulfilling mandated food requirements (protein/starch/fruit). You can bet Cinco de Mayo day menu isn't an intricate Mexican dish, but most likely tacos and corn chips with guacomale dip.

The overt stereotype is insidious - when presented that way (to hurt and demean), however in a school lunch setting, I don't think it was necessarily decided on and presented in a racist way, more-so again, rather as a commonly cultural food to be enjoyed by the kids. (Pretty sure it got tore up.)

We won't ever know except to know that those kids in that school will now never eat fried chicken, corn bread or watermelon again because it is racist. That is what will stick with them.

 

all that happened here is that these kids have learned from their parents to be overtly sensitive to anything and everything that may or may not be attached to stereotype...i am just stunned that black people wear cotton...after all that cotton picking during slavery...how dare clothing manufacturers continue to make socks, underwear, t-shirts and clothing out of cotton...cotton the fabric of our lives

school lunch people...sounds better than mystery meat:smt061

 

Most all of America is aware of the history of the stereotype of the watermelon eating black person (usually male), and this over?-reaction just reinforced it. Here was an opportunity to celebrate some food that has mostly withstood all the racist bullshit thrown at it, food that has been embraced in a way that symbolizes to most Black families as delicious COMFORT, STICK-TO-YOUR-RIBS food. Blacks didn't invent fried chicken, or cornbread, but they damn sure have taken ownership. Nothing, (except maybe greek food ) EVEN comes close to soul food. Damn needs to be celebrated and shared.

 

Some Black families not all. Sorry but fried chicken, collard greens, ribs, cornbread are not staples of MY Black/Creole family events or those of our acquaintances. However, dishes such as okra, gumbo, dirty rice, etouffee, red beans and rice are more of a standard. Not to mention that you would be far more likely to see a quiche on the table than mac n cheese and a delicious fresh arugula pear walnut salad with a balsamic vinaigrette vs. collard greens with ham hocks.

 

"Most" is what I wrote. You can break down food culturally all you want - Jamaican, Creole, Indian, African ( then break down African foods even further by regions)... as you can do with Whites. Greeks, Polish, Irish, Italians, French, British, Russian, etc but traditional white American food is symbolized as the boring steak and potatoes with gravy and corn or green beans, w/ white bread. Traditional Black food is Chicken or ribs, mac n cheese, greens/green beans and cornbread.

 

Another example of white stupidity when trying to condense something that requires more than cursory acknowledgment for twenty eight days every year.

 

This incident isn't that big of a deal.

But you have to remember, overt racism (especially against black people), is still a thing in 2014. So it isn't out of the question, that someone could think this was meant as an insult.

Sometimes were there is smoke, there is fire. And Black folks are tired of getting burned.

 

For "some" Black Americans, not all. Sorry but those were not foods that I saw on the tables of any our celebrations/birthdays/holidays/reunions/etc.

Black Americans are not a monolithic population. Soul food (in many cases not all) was the food of the poor/working class. It was slave food. And if I had children, I would not want to have slave food served to them as a "celebration".

So could someone pass the gumbo, please!

 

So never once have you seen ANY of the foods mentioned? So you have never in your life eaten ANY, huh? yeah ok.

I'm the first to say BP aren't monolithic thinkers (though it isn't encouraged in this country), but we are talking TRADITIONAL food here... of course there are exceptions, but food is very wrapped up in cultures.

Soul food IS a culture, it is celebrated, even sometimes hated. It has a rich history in this country good and bad, and you are welcome to view it as only racist slave food to this day. Least someone attack your 17th/18th century FRENCH/ITALIAN/SPANISH inspired food preference. Hey, isn't lotsa creole food slave food too then? Pass the gumbo back, please.

 

I agree overt racism is still with us, it will never go away in our life-time, I don't think. I researched that school. It's a catholic girls school. The administrators were extremely upset saying the menu would not have got to fruition in the form of a menu mailer if they had seen it, and I believe them. I mean, the school girls were at most insensitive, and probably without even realizing it.

(Here is their official statement..statement.pdf)

I also have to ask why this incident reached the media? If the complainants felt insulted, why not go to the school, why the media? I could understand if they were ignored, but they weren't, so by the same token sometimes fires are ignited when the smoke could have been extinguished.

 

Much of what you describe is Southern food in nature not really African American food. And the reason black people get offended is because its continued marginalization and overlooking how rich the culture is. Truthfully I'm sick of Black History month, if we as a country really saw "ethnic" people as true Americans then we'd stop with all this separation bs. As if 28 days is really enough to educate on the history of Americans who happen to have African descent. It's disrespectful but as usual you and Lippy simply don't get it. And honestly I can't even be mad at you because this culture doesn't give an easily digestible way for you to get it. We are bombarded with negative bullshit that has more to do with being poor and disenfranchised than being black but oh well it gives us a little taste of culture.

 

I never stated that I have never ever eaten fried chicken or anything else on the "official Black people food" list.

And how does occasionally eating a certain food automatically make it a part of my heritage? If that were the case then I would be Thai and Punjabi.

These "traditional" Black foods are not the foods that are prepared and served by the Black people in my life? It is not about MY personal preferences. I can not recall my (Black) mother EVER making fried chicken/collard green/mac n cheese/etc...or either of my (one Creole and one Black) grandmothers.

Of the untold number of weddings, funerals, family reunions, luncheons, holidays, dinner parties, backyard get-togethers, etc. of ALL of the Black people that I am related to, friends with or have known in my life the "traditional" Black foods that you have listed were not standard items on the menu.