I'm reading the story on the Daily Wire about the sophomore who complained about the menu at NYU during Black History Month and got the two employees fired for planning the menu.
I'll bet $10.00 they conferred with their black friends.
A second year student at a school where tuition and fees and room and board cost $68,400 and most likely has exposure to some pretty good food gets people fired who probably earn about half that. I don't know. It's just what I'm thinking.
I love fried chicken and I love love LOVE watermelon and I'll sit on the porch and eat watermelon and spit out the seeds and drink Kool-Aid. And whoever made that a racial thing, I'd like to punch them right in the nose.
As I read, I thought it reminded me of a dream that made me wake up cross. But it wasn't a dream. It was the Netflix television show Ugly Delicious hosted by David Chang. I never heard of Chang. Apparently he's wicked successful. His cooking style has evolved from a kind of Korean fusion to doing his own thing. He's not interested in preparing precious plates with tweezers, nor having everything shine with gloss. He makes what he finds delicious. His show is enlightening. It's useful. It's very funny in spots. It has quite a lot of creative elements. His show takes viewers where they are unlikely to go.
He's also an incredibly shallow Democrat spewing every infuriatingly shallow trope. And he's racist as all hell. Every single episode is about his perception of race and everybody else's problem with race. Without the element of race his show would be diminished by 50%.
Once you realize what you are in for then his show is viewed like this: watch, skip, skip, skip, watch, skip, skip, skip, watch, skip, watch, skip, watch, watch, watch, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip.
He's second generation Korean and completely obsessed about being Korean.
He shows his politics immediately. In the first ten minutes someone says, "this is my reality" and Chang answers oh so very cleverly, "Like Trump. Trump's alternate reality." And by that you know right off that you're in for a slog.
Were it not for the good bits then I wouldn't bother at all. Chang is they type of person I'd like to learn from but never meet.
In another episode he goes to the home of other Korean immigrants. All the other actual immigrants, and 2nd generation immigrants are more balanced than he is. Chang is trying to get them to disagree with Trump's crackdown on Muslim immigration. Chang's heart is so open and pure and accepting. The other Koreans are trying to get Chang to understand that some immigrants don't come here to work. Their dialog was about work, not about assimilation as your dialog would be. As mine would be. Next scene on the street away from the family Chang is sad that he couldn't change their minds to be more open to heavy Muslim immigration so they can have the opportunity his parents had.
Then in another episode the discussion turns to fried chicken where we learn some very good techniques from southern cooks and Tokyo cooks and Indian cooks, and of course racism takes up 3/4 the episode, analyzing black comedians, stories about innocent people being snared by not understanding other people have this hangup about chicken and watermelon like one of Chang's friends and like the the two innocent menu planners at NYU. Someone's offense where none is intended. Someone's hangup where no hangup is valid. It's not even real, but still perceived, by the likes of the NYU sophomore and by Chang who imbue this imaginary racism with such destructive energy and taint glorious combinations like fried chicken and watermelon.
If you can stand all of that then I recommend his show. I have a very low tolerance for racially obsessed people and that makes this show difficult for me to watch. Nevertheless, I watch anyway to get the good bits. It really is good.
I want fried chicken and I want watermelon and I don't care who you are or what month it is or what the celebration is about. I don't even want to think about what race anybody is. I don't want to think about anyone being offended. I don't care about the history of it. I just want fried chicken and watermelon.
19 comments:
I like the show (I just started watching it). I watched the pizza and taco episodes. But David Chang also likes Domino's Pizza, so I don't take what he says so seriously (sorry, Domino's pizza is not good). Given I hear anti Trump stuff all the time from so many people, so his comments don't impact me. Strangely enough, Chang's love of mass produced fast food mimics Donald Trump!
Overall, it is fun to watch. I like the other people on the show. I even like David.
I also love fried chicken and watermelon.
Now we may have two people who will hate black history month, perhaps until they die.
It doesn't matter what the topic, someone is offended by it. That person who complained about the food should have been told to fuck off.
Try inviting some black people to a picnic and telling them not to worry, there won't be any fried chicken and watermelon there to offend you. Maybe there are some black people who would appreciate that but those I've known would more likely take offense that you would invite them to a summer picnic and not provide watermelon, and it had better be some good watermelon.
I'm curious as to just what she thought "should" be on the menu to celebrate Black History Month?
Quiche Lorraine? Spaghetti and meatballs? Pizza? Tacos?
There is likely nothing that could be served that this little mini bitch couldn't find offensive.
Why do people even listen to these children throwing tantrums?
I did look at shock, then laughed when in the Taco segment, one of the cooks commented that the US is a melting pot but with a xenophobic streak, but that Mexico welcomes everyone.
What utter BS that is. As some Guatamalans, Hondurans, and El Salvadorans how welcoming Mexico is to them moving there. At best, after they shake them down and beat them (or rape the women), they point north and say keep moving...
Oopsy, that's the problem.
The little twerp doesn't know what she thinks.
And Chip is right. She doubtless has visions of herself down with all the oppressed of the world, but she gets a couple of working stiffs fired because she thinks she should be "offended".
And what both Lem and Allen said.
There are black Americans who will not buy fried chicken or watermelon because they feel weird buying fried chicken or watermelon.
The Aramark employees screwed up because they should have done the menu as some sort of African curry with peanuts and cassava or invite a chef from Harlem to do "soul food." You have to give it a veneer of PC authenticity. Which is weirdly enough what that Netflix show Chip mentioned was railing against.
How to celebrate Black History Month at an uber-proggy university. Fire 2 black men over.... PC food BS.
Progressives are superior, doncha know.
but please, progressive democratics are NOT racist.
Fried Chicken is Scottish Soul Food...
I keep thinking of something I saw as a kid in the Unsinkable Molly Brown. (Incidentally, her house is a few blocks away on Pennsylvania St. at 14th.)
Molly Brown offended the other wealthy because she reminded them of whence they came. She was too close. The girl at NYU is like the women who hated Molly Brown for reminding her. She is not like that.
Ugly Delicious showed something I did not know. So there is some value to all the racist horseshit. Slaves were not allowed to have cows or pigs but they were allowed to have chickens. Yardbirds.
The NYU girl is reminded uncomfortably about something like that. Although the meal at NYU was spare ribs and not fried chicken. Still, the same dealio about being reminded.
So then, as a white guy we remind them of their discomfort every day just being here and not having any of that.
In the last episode (I think) the chef comes right out and says "Did you ever ask 'why was I born Chinese?' I did. I hated being born Korean. I wished I was born white. Then I wouldn't have to think about any of this."
Butchya ah Blanch. Ya ah born Korean.
Now get the f over yourself and show us how to cook food.
Best fried chicken I ever had was in a shack (a clean shack) on Highway 98 just outside Fairhope, Alabama. Don't know if it was black owned but the cooks and counter people were all black. Had it with mashed potatoes and gravy and those southern greens that are so much better than whatever passes for greens up north. Ended with peach cobbler so I missed the watermelon. So if you're ever in that area just keep driving south on 98 about a mile and a half past the cut off to Fairhope and you can't miss it --on your right.
People who racialize food are just projecting their own racial insecurity. There's nothing "black" about fried chicken or watermelon. Black people love friend chicken and watermelon for the same reasons everyone else does; they're delicious. The stereotype is a figment from the days when the Dems were stigmatizing blacks, before they switched racial horses. Fried chicken and watermelon is food you eat with your hands so it's "dirty" basic fare. That's how the stereotype came into being.
What are the foods that are stigmatized now? Meat, fast food, things with gluten and sugar and salt. But these are stigmatized on pseudo/scientific/environmental grounds. Are there foods that are stigmatized for racial reasons? Mayonnaise was for a long time. And jello. If you really want to irritate your local food justice warrior whip up a lemon lime marshmallow cottage cheese surprise and serve with a side of mayonnaise. Make sure to eat behind a protective barrier so no splatter from heads exploding.
And, yes, I cannot believe NYU allowed two black men to be fired to placate this ridiculous privileged princess and her racial insecurities.
Where has everyone been the past 9 years? The new Soul food is Kobe beef, lobster, arugula and
Coovasieay and Grape Drank cocktail. Snap cards accepted.
"Kobe Beef" is eubonics slang for "raped white girl in Colorado and got away with it."
@ricpic there are so many places for fried chicken in that area, but I want to visit the one you rave about in your post. Any chance you can be more specific about its location?
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