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School administrators apologize for menu of fried chicken, cornbread & watermelon

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ishibear said:
It's just... the watermelon.

Our food is great. Don't worry about that. Your attention should be on the watermelon and the above images as to why that's ignorant to do for BHM.
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I dunno though. I'm getting a sense that they could have come out with pretty much any soul food dish and people would have sounded the alarms.
 
fuzzyreactor said:
Okay i guess the above explains it but still, why watermelon? Why not apples or oranges....
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Apples, oranges, and watermelon grow in three completely different parts of the country. Now think about which of the three was the hotbed of American slavery.

Kitschkraft said:
This is pretty much how I feel. I mean, I'm not going to defend the school as other posters have given evidence that this was done with foul intentions, but....is there not a way to honor black American cooking traditions without condescension?
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Step one would be to make sure that their overall program in terms of honoring Black History month, and black students, is in a good place to start with. As a private school in the US there is basically zero chance that this is true.

Step two would be to think about how honoring different food traditions works as part of menu planning in general. When you do theme ethnic lunches, are you actually respecting the traditions you're referencing, or just doing inaccurate pop-culture versions of cuisines to get easy "diversity"?

Step three would be to construct a menu that actually respected the history and experience of Black America through food instead of reaching for stereotypes. I don't think you'd see people upset about, for example, a weeklong menu that respectfully highlighted different black food traditions from America (soul food, Cajun or Creole, Afro-Carribean, Ethiopian, etc.) instead of just one thing that's easy to toss off without any real thought or understanding, both since that would include a bunch of different delicious foods and because it would highlight the diversity of the black experience in America.
 
EskimoJoe said:
My college always had theme meals for certain holidays. Black History Month's meal was fried chicked, corn bread, watermelon, all kinds of racist shit. But no one complained because 1. The staff was almost entirely black, so people weren't even sure if you could call them racist, and 2. The food was damn delicious.
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Well, wouldn't it be best to convert symbols of oppression into symbols of power?
 
Kitschkraft said:
I dunno though. I'm getting a sense that they could have come out with pretty much any soul food dish and people would have sounded the alarms.
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Any soul food dish huh yet they picked some obvious ones. A lot of these "issues" can be dealt with right out of the gate by talking to the black caucus in an establishment instead of stupid assumptions on their behalf. The students asked for the watermelon to go. Why not just ask the students and parents ahead of time what they'd like to see, how they'd want to celebrate it. I guess that would involve actually engaging with them though.
 
Slayven said:
Too complex for these people, hang a banner and call it a day.
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Yeah, I mean, the core problem here is that you have what's probably a pretty racist institution to start with (private Christian academy that features 95% white girls in the photos on its front page) trying to do something easy instead of actually grappling with what Black History Month means and why it's important.
 
il Diavolo said:
Holy fuck :lol how could they think this was a good idea?
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I think the same thing that happened when DC released this, lack of diversity.

flashpointmapbig.jpg
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Kitschkraft said:
This is pretty much how I feel. I mean, I'm not going to defend the school as other posters have given evidence that this was done with foul intentions, but....is there not a way to honor black American cooking traditions without condescension?

I think it's a bad idea by the school regardless, it's a fucking minefield and they should have been smarter. Maybe they are just poking fun. But I still don't understand why I should be ashamed of my own heritage food.

I mean, if they were celebrating black music, and played blues or something, would that also be worthy of critique?
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I think it all depends on the starting point of an effort like this. If they goal is to educate before you celebrate, you look at everything a whole new way. With that kind of perspective you begin to think about the implications, relevance and importance of what you include in your celebrations rather than just stopping at "the obvious". If you begin thinking seriously about what every aspect of the month means, "Yes, watermelon!" would instead become "Wait, why watermelon?" It's entirely possible to celebrate the month considering cuisine, it just takes effort, study and discourse which in this case, the people in charge didn't really display.
 
I want to highlight this part of the original article too, by the way:

The school community could have prevented this, she said, by reaching out to the key stakeholders - black students and parents - and asked them what they think was appropriate. In Silicon Valley, she added, many blacks are not even from the United States, but from around the world and may have enjoyed another cultural dish.

Several students told NBC Bay Area that Libby talked to members of the Black Student Union on campus and the students suggested that the watermelon be taken off the menu.
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The right way to avoid a problem here was to talk to people in the school community (because they can tell you right away if you're doing something dumb), and also to think outside the most obvious dumb stereotypes (highlighting ethnic cuisines of other immigrant communities, for example.)

Everyone who's asking "well what should they have done instead," go read the OP again. :P
 
charlequin said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watermelon_stereotype
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Devolution said:
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/coon/
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Lonewolf_92 said:
The trope of watermelon being loved by African Americans has its roots in American slavery. According to David Pilgrim, the curator of the Jim Crow Museum, defenders of slavery used the watermelon as a symbol of simplicity. African Americans, the argument went, were happy as slaves. They didn't need the complicated responsibilities of freedom; they just needed some shade and a cool, delicious treat. Sociological Images did a pretty good write up of it.
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I see. Thanks for clearing that up. It always seems completely random to me, but this explains everything.
 
I hate 'first post nails it' shit but in this case I will say that I had an experience quite similar to the one expressed by the first person to reply.

Aylinato said:
I came here expected to be outraged because I love those foods. I now leave outraged because of racism.
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although maybe not as much outraged as just dumbfounded.
 
Kitschkraft said:
I dunno though. I'm getting a sense that they could have come out with pretty much any soul food dish and people would have sounded the alarms.
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Not true. No one's talking about the chicken and cornbread. We're talking about the watermelon. Did you miss the pictures on the last page?

For BHM that fruit being used in light of this situation is offensive.
 
EdibleKnife said:
I think it all depends on the starting point of an effort like this. If they goal is to educate before you celebrate, you look at everything a whole new way. With that kind of perspective you begin to think about the implications, relevance and important of what you include in your celebrations rather than just stopping at "the obvious". If you begin thinking seriously about what every aspect of the month means, "Yes, watermelon!" would instead become "Wait, why watermelon?" It's entirely possible to celebrate the month considering cuisine, it just takes effort, study and discourse which in this case, the people in charge didn't really display.
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Another idea would be to introduce actual education of historical figures using food as an example like having a day dedicated to folks like George Washington Carver. The amount of peanut related food products this man invented is staggering.
 
charlequin said:
.



Step one would be to make sure that their overall program in terms of honoring Black History month, and black students, is in a good place to start with. As a private school in the US there is basically zero chance that this is true.

Step two would be to think about how honoring different food traditions works as part of menu planning in general. When you do theme ethnic lunches, are you actually respecting the traditions you're referencing, or just doing inaccurate pop-culture versions of cuisines to get easy "diversity"?

Step three would be to construct a menu that actually respected the history and experience of Black America through food instead of reaching for stereotypes. I don't think you'd see people upset about, for example, a weeklong menu that respectfully highlighted different black food traditions from America (soul food, Cajun or Creole, Afro-Carribean, Ethiopian, etc.) instead of just one thing that's easy to toss off without any real thought or understanding, both since that would include a bunch of different delicious foods and because it would highlight the diversity of the black experience in America.
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This. Exactly this.
 
I wish I was served fried chicken, cornbread & watermelon at my school lunches.

Am I dismissing the centuries of stereotypes derived from white perceptions towards slaves? Of course not.

In this context (introducing fried chicken, cornbread & watermelon specifically), I do believe it's inappropriate for the school because it demonstrates clear ignorance of what these foods represented throughout history.

Now, if these foods were part of a regular schedule of school lunches, that would be quite delicious. It's a shame these foods have baggage and history behind them...they're some of the most delicious foods I've ever tasted.
 
That sounds delicious. Damn you racists for ruining this good combination. But yeah, I don't see how they thought this was a good idea.
 
Dead Man said:
The guy asked a question that looks like he is trying to understand the issue, why bag him for that?
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I didn't bag him. Cause that is the issue, these people were too lazy to step out of their world. But they felt to need to do something. My solution fixes that for them.
 
Omega Rex said:
Maybe you should pay attention to the world more. For starters, Hispanic people are called beaners. Which comes from the word bean. Which is something we use in pretty much every dish.

Food is most certainly used against hispanic people to ridicule and spout racist stereotypes.
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Yeah and I've been called that myself, my point was that a taco/rice/bean plate does not hold the same racist overtone as soul food with watermelon (that being said they're both good).
 
Lol, Carondelet...

It's a catholic private school across the street from De La Salle, an all boys catholic high school. Pretty popular football school, had the biggest winning streak for a long time. I went to DLS.
 
Labor said:
Feeding kids school cafeteria-level soul food for a month isn't likely to be in their best interest.
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Compared to the cafeteria-level food we feed them the rest of the school year? Soul food can be prepared to be just as healthy as the stuff they're getting the rest of the year with a little meal planning.
 
Lonewolf_92 said:
Compared to the cafeteria-level food we feed them the rest of the school year? Soul food can be prepared to be just as healthy as the stuff they're getting the rest of the year with a little meal planning.
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Since this is a private school they might have that kind of budgetary leeway, but seeing as how this was their big idea for recognizing BHM in the first place, I'm going to guess they're not that forward thinking.
 
Sounds like a tasty meal to me... Also, most "soul food" is just southern food in general... I've never understood why people decided to tie it to a race...
 
Nostremitus said:
Sounds like a tasty meal to me... Also, most "soul food" is just southern food in general... I've never understood why people decided to tie it to a race...
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Who you think did all the cooking? Black people cooked for the white people. But the same time they usually got the scraps and less than choice food to take home. So they had to make that shit sing.
 
Slayven said:
Who you think did all the cooking? Black people cooked for the white people. But the same time they usually got the scraps and less than choice food to take home. So they had to make that shit sing.
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And that has what to do with present day? Most Cajun food is the same way, the ingredients just change due to local availability.
 
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