Poor Leslie Calhoun, chef at NBC's 30 Rock headquarters. The black foodie thought she was paying homage to her race by hanging a sign up that read: "In Honor of Black History Month," followed by a yummy menu of fried chicken, collard Greens w/smoked turkey, white rice w/black eyed peas, and jalapeno cornbread. Seems pretty innocent and festive, right? Well, not according to musician Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, the 70's-era-afro'd drummer for the band The Roots and the Jimmy Fallon show, who apparently equates fried chicken with the "N" word.
According to Calhoun, Questlove ordered up some of that finger-lickin' good chicken, a little neckbone mixed with some black eyed peas (perhaps Fergie should be the one pissed off?) and then, incredulous, stepped off the line to post a picture of the controversial menu to his 1.2 million Twitter followers...causing a stir both in cyberspace and in NBC-commissaryspace.
Personally, I'm not sure what the fuss was/is about. Would Jews claim anti-Semitism if there was a sign honoring Jewish History Month with a menu of brisket, latkes and chicken soup? Would Hispanics think it racist to honor Hispanic History Month with paella, refried beans and guacamole? I mean, is this really something Questlove or anyone else should be wasting time on? Has America become so sensitive and politically correct that a black cook cannot feature an ethnic menu and celebrate her people without being hit with the racist label....and by a self-righteous, rabble-rousing, self-soul-food-Loathing twittering black man, no less? Well, NBC executives decided to remove the allegedly racist menu sign, so judge for yourselves.
Perhaps Questlove should stick to playing drums and leave the social commentary to folks like Jon Stewart and Prof. Cornell West.
4 comments:
I hope Jon Stewart gets this and blasts it. He should get a great run of material from it. I hope someone clues him in.
That menu is in the category of food choices that is called Southern Cooking and has been cherished and enjoyed by whites as well as black for generations. How racially insensitive his objection is to white people as well as black people and the entire southern culture.
I think that all too often stereotyping is confused with racism. I believe this to be at worst a case of stereotyping. For good or bad, many stereotypes are accurate on a macro level, even though they may not apply to every single member of the stereotyped group.
DITTO DITTO YOUR COMMENTS ARE RIGHT ON THE MARK. SO REFRESHING TO HAVE AN OPORTUNITY TO EDUCATE SOME FOLKS. AS A WHITE SOUTHERNER WHO WAS RAISED ON FOOD THAT TO NON-SOUTHERNERS NIS CONSIDERED TO BE SOUL FOOD OR "BLACK" FOOD EXCLUSIVLY. THE WONDERFUL CUISINE OF THE SOUTH IS VERY VARIED, BUT HAS ITS ROOTS IN DOWN HOME SOUTHERN COOKING, THE ORIGINS WHICH ARE BLACK AND WHITE!
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