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Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu[W:250]

Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

It's so weird. I don't remember a single kid in the 70s or 80s at school that had a deadly reaction, or any reaction, to peanuts. Now, you take a peanut into a school, and they treat you like a terrorist.

Where did this come from?

I think their parents rolled another solution. Back then, just because one student was allergic to something, the entire school didn't need to swear off it. Also, good chance they may have died before breeding and passing it on, there were peanuts in everything and no label laws.
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

Here is a little comic relief about this topic to lighten the mood.

 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

Erod, do you think the debate here is about whether fried chicken is yummy? Or do you think it might...just might...be about something else, even if you don't necessarily understand it?

I fully understand it. We've managed, somehow, to equate fried chicken and watermelon to slavery and deeply embedded racism.

It's black history month (which in itself could be construed as racist, much like Affirmative Action). One of the things this school did was "celebrate" the foods that black Americans have HISTORICALLY enjoyed. That's not the only thing the school did, just one of the things.

Then a bunch of people get butthurt because chicken and watermelon have been culturally spun by the left to be synonymous with racism and bigotry. How that is, is baffling. And until we stop fixating on these meaningless nothings, progress will remain stuck in the mud on a lot of levels.
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

It usually does eventually boil down to an absurdity that sometimes I think only we Americans could be guilty of.

If we were celebrating Jewish history month, would anyone be offended by the cafeteria serving a kosher meal?

If we were celebrating Irish history, or it was St. Patrick's Day, would anyone be offended by the cafeteria serving corned beef and cabbage or Irish stew?

If we are celebrating Native American heritage, would anyone be offended by the cafeteria serving traditional "Indian" fare including fry bread and pemmican?

So why is it such an insult to acknowledge that 'black history' includes the invention of and concept of soul food and incorporate that into the process? A whole bunch of us like it a lot. Am I missing something here?
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

I fully understand it. We've managed, somehow, to equate fried chicken and watermelon to slavery and deeply embedded racism.

It's black history month (which in itself could be construed as racist, much like Affirmative Action). One of the things this school did was "celebrate" the foods that black Americans have HISTORICALLY enjoyed. That's not the only thing the school did, just one of the things.

Then a bunch of people get butthurt because chicken and watermelon have been culturally spun by the left to be synonymous with racism and bigotry. How that is, is baffling. And until we stop fixating on these meaningless nothings, progress will remain stuck in the mud on a lot of levels.


You think this was created by a liberal movement? You give Democrats too much credit.


Watermelon stereotype - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

It usually does eventually boil down to an absurdity that sometimes I think only we Americans could be guilty of.

If we were celebrating Jewish history month, would anyone be offended by the cafeteria serving a kosher meal?

If we were celebrating Irish history, or it was St. Patrick's Day, would anyone be offended by the cafeteria serving corned beef and cabbage or Irish stew?

If we are celebrating Native American heritage, would anyone be offended by the cafeteria serving traditional "Indian" fare?

So why is it such an insult to acknowledge that 'black history' includes the invention of and concept of soul food and incorporate that into the process? A whole bunch of us like it a lot. Am I missing something here?

Were kosher meals or green beer or whatever used in recent cultural history to disparage these ethnic groups?

While I agree we should be as even handed as possible, we do live in a culture with an active history and cultures very rarely forget their shared history (distort, sure, but forgetting can take centuries. Heck we still have people who bitch about the civil war and political fights nearly two centuries old)
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

I fully understand it. We've managed, somehow, to equate fried chicken and watermelon to slavery and deeply embedded racism.

It's black history month (which in itself could be construed as racist, much like Affirmative Action). One of the things this school did was "celebrate" the foods that black Americans have HISTORICALLY enjoyed. That's not the only thing the school did, just one of the things.

Then a bunch of people get butthurt because chicken and watermelon have been culturally spun by the left to be synonymous with racism and bigotry. How that is, is baffling. And until we stop fixating on these meaningless nothings, progress will remain stuck in the mud on a lot of levels.

Yep. Agreed. I'm sure this "60 Minutes" clip has probably been posted on this thread but Morgan Freeman has it exactly right:

Morgan Freeman on Black History Month - YouTube

Until we stop seeing a racist behind every tree, until we stop looking for racism in every nuance, and until we stop treating black people like some fragile beings who are so oppressed and disadvantaged and incapable without having their psyches soothed, protected, and elevated, racism will continue alive and well in this country. At the expense of a great deal of blood and treasure of people of all colors and walks of life, we eliminated slavery and segregation and organizational discrimination. We've won the war and we need to stop fighting it. We need to start treating skin color as of no more importance than eye color or hair color.

It is fine to study the history of our country and world, including treatment of people who were different and that would include black people in both positive and negative concepts of course. And we should not be offended that the black culture at some point invented soul food and it has become an important part of American cultural cuisine enjoyed by many. We should not see it as an insult just by acknowledging that it exists and enjoying it.
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

Peanut butter and tuna sandwiches? Have you kept track of his whereabouts, or didn't he survive his lunches? :mrgreen:

Greetings, CJ. :2wave:

I moved in grade 6 and never saw him again - he was pretty healthy, from what I remember - cast iron stomach too.

And good afternoon Lady P - haven't seen you online much lately - hope all is well - we got about a foot of snow Tuesday - hope it passed you by.
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

I fully understand it. We've managed, somehow, to equate fried chicken and watermelon to slavery and deeply embedded racism.

It's black history month (which in itself could be construed as racist, much like Affirmative Action). One of the things this school did was "celebrate" the foods that black Americans have HISTORICALLY enjoyed. That's not the only thing the school did, just one of the things.

Then a bunch of people get butthurt because chicken and watermelon have been culturally spun by the left to be synonymous with racism and bigotry. How that is, is baffling. And until we stop fixating on these meaningless nothings, progress will remain stuck in the mud on a lot of levels.

Everyone can drop it, people. Erod has solved racism.
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

There's a difference between watermelon an d fried chicken as "ethnic" foods, and such things as tamales, haggis, or saurkraut. The obvious difference is that the latter are actually national dishes in real countries. The so called "black" ethnic foods are associated not with a country, but with slavery. Just what is the country of the African Americans in the United States anyway? Unless they immigrated from Africa, they're Americans and have no other country in their heritage, or at least in their known heritage. That's why it wouldn't be offensive to serve a lunch of tamales and enchiladas on Cinco de Mayo, but really is offensive to serve up a stereotype on MLK day.
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

Here is a little comic relief about this topic to lighten the mood.




:lamo It really made the video even more funny when the above was followed right by the post below.


It's black history month (which in itself could be construed as racist, much like Affirmative Action). One of the things this school did was "celebrate" the foods that black Americans have HISTORICALLY enjoyed. That's not the only thing the school did, just one of the things.


I'm sure it wasn't meant on purpose though, right?
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

There's a difference between watermelon an d fried chicken as "ethnic" foods, and such things as tamales, haggis, or saurkraut. The obvious difference is that the latter are actually national dishes in real countries. The so called "black" ethnic foods are associated not with a country, but with slavery. Just what is the country of the African Americans in the United States anyway? Unless they immigrated from Africa, they're Americans and have no other country in their heritage, or at least in their known heritage. That's why it wouldn't be offensive to serve a lunch of tamales and enchiladas on Cinco de Mayo, but really is offensive to serve up a stereotype on MLK day.

Could so use a tamale right now
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

I fully understand it. We've managed, somehow, to equate fried chicken and watermelon to slavery and deeply embedded racism.

It's black history month (which in itself could be construed as racist, much like Affirmative Action). One of the things this school did was "celebrate" the foods that black Americans have HISTORICALLY enjoyed. That's not the only thing the school did, just one of the things.

Then a bunch of people get butthurt because chicken and watermelon have been culturally spun by the left to be synonymous with racism and bigotry. How that is, is baffling. And until we stop fixating on these meaningless nothings, progress will remain stuck in the mud on a lot of levels.

And as always, we need to find a way to blame it on the left. You're nothing if not predictable. If it's even slightly unpleasant, it's liberals' fault.

See this picture. Photoshopped by the left...


ObamaFriedChicken.jpg

I mean, it would have to be since it's been "culturally spun by the left" to be a stereotype. Besides which, the right is full of wonderful nice people who never say anything negative about Obama unless it's about his policies. In this case, his policies favoring the chicken industry and watermelon farmers.
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

Damn liberals....


sho-wish-ah-had-me-some-fried-chicken-and-watermelon.jpg
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

Were kosher meals or green beer or whatever used in recent cultural history to disparage these ethnic groups?

While I agree we should be as even handed as possible, we do live in a culture with an active history and cultures very rarely forget their shared history (distort, sure, but forgetting can take centuries. Heck we still have people who bitch about the civil war and political fights nearly two centuries old)

I don't know what has been used to disparage anybody, other than those who have disrespected Jews and Asians re their cultural traditions, and I really don't care. I do know that by perpetuating it as offensive, by getting all offended, by rejecting real things because they might be associated with something negative is NOT the way to combat racism. It is by promoting all the cultural heritage of the people as a positive that we turn something negative into a positive. Soul food is something I grew up on, and because I grew up with a lot of black people in my life, it is something I can fully appreciate as a treasure that those same black people invented. I resent when it is made into something negative, and I definitely see it as something that will not reduce racist concepts or resentment, but rather feeds it when a big deal is made over something as innocuous as fried chicken, cornbread, and watermelon.
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

I don't know what has been used to disparage anybody, other than those who have disrespected Jews and Asians re their cultural traditions, and I really don't care. I do know that by perpetuating it as offensive, by getting all offended, by rejecting real things because they might be associated with something negative is NOT the way to combat racism. It is by promoting all the cultural heritage of the people as a positive that we turn something negative into a positive. Soul food is something I grew up on, and because I grew up with a lot of black people in my life, it is something I can fully appreciate as a treasure that those same black people invented. I resent when it is made into something negative, and I definitely see it as something that will not reduce racist concepts or resentment, but rather feeds it when a big deal is made over something as innocuous as fried chicken, cornbread, and watermelon.

Understandable stance, but racism and racial offense is not a problem easily solved, not do I believe it's going to be one that only had a single solution.

It's going to have to go away naturally over time and frankly some racists are so far gone. We just gotta wait for them to age out of society. It's the same for those who see racism everywhere. Their minds are set and it's going to take years and addressing younger generations to really fix.

We have made good progress. Astounding progress, but these flare ups are simply going to happen for the next thirty years or so.
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

Understandable stance, but racism and racial offense is not a problem easily solved, not do I believe it's going to be one that only had a single solution.

It's going to have to go away naturally over time and frankly some racists are so far gone. We just gotta wait for them to age out of society. It's the same for those who see racism everywhere. Their minds are set and it's going to take years and addressing younger generations to really fix.

We have made good progress. Astounding progress, but these flare ups are simply going to happen for the next thirty years or so.

But as Morgan Freeman said, the best thing we can do re racism now is to stop talking about it. As I previously posted, we have expended massive amounts of blood and treasure fighting it and we, as a people, not just black people, have ended slavery, ended segregation, ended organizational discrimination. We have won the war. Now we have to stop fighting it. We have to start treating skin color as of no more importance than eye color or hair color. Yes, certain individuals will include racism as an obstacle they had to overcome just as certain individuals will include gender or sexual orientation or height, weight, or physical challenges as obstacles they had to overcome.

And we all live with stereotypes that are sometimes disparaging, sometimes teasing, sometimes just interesting. I am stereotyped because I am a conservative. Because I am a woman. Because I am a Southerner or Westerner. Or probably in a dozen other ways. So are Italians and the Irish and Asians and Catholics or pick a group. Any group. But the good intentioned stereotypes are usually harmless and merit a chuckle and maybe a nod that yeah, sometimes Italians can't talk without using their hands. etc.

We need to allow black people to also join the human race and allow their stereotypes to merit a chuckle and maybe a nod that yeah, we do like fried chicken and cornbread. And further, if you want it done right, you better hunt up a good black cook to make it. And that kind of attitude takes all the racism right out of it. To be all insulted and offended by well intended teasing or recognition only perpetuates racism.
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

Everyone can drop it, people. Erod has solved racism.

Oh, it'll never be "solved".

It's a multi-billion-dollar industry for the left. Jesse Jackson built an empire on it.
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

But as Morgan Freeman said, the best thing we can do re racism now is to stop talking about it. As I previously posted, we have expended massive amounts of blood and treasure fighting it and we, as a people, not just black people, have ended slavery, ended segregation, ended organizational discrimination. We have won the war. Now we have to stop fighting it. We have to start treating skin color as of no more importance than eye color or hair color. Yes, certain individuals will include racism as an obstacle they had to overcome just as certain individuals will include gender or sexual orientation or height, weight, or physical challenges as obstacles they had to overcome.

And we all live with stereotypes that are sometimes disparaging, sometimes teasing, sometimes just interesting. I am stereotyped because I am a conservative. Because I am a woman. Because I am a Southerner or Westerner. Or probably in a dozen other ways. So are Italians and the Irish and Asians and Catholics or pick a group. Any group. But the good intentioned stereotypes are usually harmless and merit a chuckle and maybe a nod that yeah, sometimes Italians can't talk without using their hands. etc.

We need to allow black people to also join the human race and allow their stereotypes to merit a chuckle and maybe a nod that yeah, we do like fried chicken and cornbread. And further, if you want it done right, you better hunt up a good black cook to make it. And that kind of attitude takes all the racism right out of it. To be all insulted and offended by well intended teasing or recognition only perpetuates racism.

I wish it wee that simple. But the racists are going to keep talking about it no matter what the rest of us do. Until they are either completely beat down or die off to a point it's too small a minority to have any real power, we gotta keep up the fight.

That being said, a lot people are just way too sensitive these days.
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

There's a difference between watermelon an d fried chicken as "ethnic" foods, and such things as tamales, haggis, or saurkraut. The obvious difference is that the latter are actually national dishes in real countries. The so called "black" ethnic foods are associated not with a country, but with slavery. Just what is the country of the African Americans in the United States anyway? Unless they immigrated from Africa, they're Americans and have no other country in their heritage, or at least in their known heritage. That's why it wouldn't be offensive to serve a lunch of tamales and enchiladas on Cinco de Mayo, but really is offensive to serve up a stereotype on MLK day.

So long as you perpetuate such nonsense over nothing but food, racism will thrive and multiply more each generation.

Somehow, we've constructed society in such a way that you can tease and stereotype darn near anything and everybody.....except black people. That is the most racist thing going in America.
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

Actually, "Europe's perspective" would be exactly what I call Eurocentric by definition.

The very fact that America "was discovered" is from a European point of view. Why should our history be told by Europeans?

Well, I guess because at the time, Chief Sitting Bull Gutenberg hadn't learned how to turn smoke signals into printed text.

Is it really so hard to understand that Europeans were recording the discovery of a land that was new to them? Why wouldn't they record it as a discovery of a new land?

Again, that this is an issue seems to me to be more evidence of a PC bias attempting to invent history, than it is of a Eurocentric bias trying to claim ownership of it.

I suppose the next time I discover a new place I haven't been before, I'll make sure to qualify it properly so I don't come across as trying to stake a greater claim than I deserve.
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

Oh, it'll never be "solved".

It's a multi-billion-dollar industry for the left. Jesse Jackson built an empire on it.

Yep, it's all the left's fault...
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

Well, I guess because at the time, Chief Sitting Bull Gutenberg hadn't learned how to turn smoke signals into printed text.

Is it really so hard to understand that Europeans were recording the discovery of a land that was new to them? Why wouldn't they record it as a discovery of a new land?

Again, that this is an issue seems to me to be more evidence of a PC bias attempting to invent history, than it is of a Eurocentric bias trying to claim ownership of it.

I suppose the next time I discover a new place I haven't been before, I'll make sure to qualify it properly so I don't come across as trying to stake a greater claim than I deserve.

Europeans were going to record it the way they recorded it. That's one thing. We don't have to keep teaching it the way people across the ocean thought of it 500 years ago.
 
Re: Calif. school apologizes for black history lunch menu

Chicken and a slice of watermelon isn't racist in and of itself. But when people talk about black people loving chicken and watermelon, they're talking about a lot more than food. They're talking about a stereotype with a lot of racist history. History still embraced by some of the worst people on the internet.

For Example:


dd13d9f13.jpg




History is important. Any Black History Month celebration that ignores the experiences and portrayals of black people in this country is shallow at best.


If you want to acknowledge black history this month, learn it.
Ive heard both black comedians and just regular old friends and civilians make the same lament...I hate getting pissed about the joke about fried chicken and watermelon because I LOVE fried chicken and watermelon....
 
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