NBC celebrates Black History Month in a really tasteless way

[Nell]

In honor of Black History Month, the NBC cafeteria served fried chicken, collard greens, and jalapeno cornbread today for lunch. The picture below was snapped by Questlove, the drummer for the Roots--Jimmy Fallon's house band. He was also the musician that pointed out via Twitter that Conan spent half a million dollars on a walk-out song for Tom Hanks during his last episode.

Someone tweeting under the name @nbcu (which, as of now, only has 8 followers) is claiming to and be NBC's VP of Communications, Kevin Goldman. The first and only tweet says: "The sign in the NBCU cafeteria has been removed. We apologize for anyone who was offended by it."'

The chef, Leslie Calhoun -- who is black -- said she has been trying to institute a special Black History Month menu for years and was allowed to do so for the first time this year. She said doesn't understand the controversy.

"I don't understand at all," she told NBC partner site TheGrio. "It's not trying to offend anybody and it's not trying to suggest that that's all that African-Americans eat. It's just a good meal. I thought it would go over well."

Well. Should people be offended by this? Or is it just the PC police out of control.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_449821.html

[Twisted]

I think, in this case, it's likely to be the PC police out of control. As the chef mentioned, this was not a message regarding African-American culture in any negative manner, and I admittedly give her a bit of a pass. I doubt a black chef would be intentionally working to offend black people.

That said, I'm offended by the food, or at least my heart is.

[penelopejo]

I am offended at the price. For all that food and only $7.50?

Then NBC employees get a discount! lol

Many of these foods are served and considered black cuisine, I don't understand.

Maybe I should snap a pic of the Hispanic Heritage Month menu consisting of enchilada's, refried beans, spanish rice, salsa(green and red), and tortilla's then make an uproar about it.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

You can't celebrate a culture and not include it's food. Good thing there isn't a Norwegian history month. You all would be served lutefisk.

Don't most cultures have an ethnic menu? Or am I racist and that is the wrong menu? It looks like "Southern" food to me... and face it, the roots of many black Americans spring from the south.

[Athena]

The PC police are out of control. SOOOOO MANY black folk advertise their love of "soul food" (a class of cuisine that would include many of these items) that they can't then turn around and bitch when these foods are associated with their culture.

It's all that self-loathing stuff. They want to celebrate the things they love within the community, but when anyone outside the community recognizes they love these things, they suddenly try to separate themselves from it. LOL @ them not realizing the menu was created by a black person. Are they trying to say these foods aren't a part of their history? This seems to me like a German person sneering at the availability of schnitzel and brats during a German history month.

Get over yourselves, people. You too, Questlove... even though I adore you. You're sending mixed messages to your fellow black folk. Either recognize and celebrate that which contributes to your heritage or don't. Your choice. But no more of this both and neither bullshit.

[Twisted]

You can't celebrate a culture and not include it's food. Good thing there isn't a Norwegian history month. You all would be served lutefisk.

First, I'd like to say I'm so thankful that doesn't get served to me. Of course, it'd just sit there. My ancestry is Swedish, so I put up with the meatballs on occasion. Well, the other side is Welsh, but I don't mind putting up with beer.

Don't most cultures have an ethnic menu? Or am I racist and that is the wrong menu? It looks like "Southern" food to me... and face it, the roots of many black Americans spring from the south.

Absolutely most cultures do. However, one could make the case that African-Americans do not have specific cultural cuisine and identity, apart from a more ancestral one which could better be served by providing African foods.

In general, I believe this is a case of hyper-sensitivity. It's an unfortunate product of our world, and sadly it tends to be perpetuated on all sides.

[Valasca]

PC police are out of control.
I'd eat it and I'm white. doesn't mean it's a racial thing at all.
7.50 is a good deal for that.

[AngelFire]

So in the Cinco de Mayo events here in Los Angeles, the Mexicans should be offended if someone sells tacos and burritos? Good Lord, how stupid can some people be.

[Twisted]

So in the Cinco de Mayo events here in Los Angeles, the Mexicans should be offended if someone sells tacos and burritos? Good Lord, how stupid can some people be.

Still playing Devil's Advocate here, we are looking at a different sort of thing in the cuisine.

Tacos and burritos largely developed naturally through Mexican culture, and are a heritage food that they brought with them voluntarily into this country.

Southern comfort food came from the white slave owners providing such food to their indentured people, rather than being brought by those people. It wouldn't really be a heritage remembrance in a positive light for many, as it could be seen as an extension of the cultural loss they suffered being transferred here involuntarily.

[Echo]

PC out of control. Definitely.

[penelopejo]

Still playing Devil's Advocate here, we are looking at a different sort of thing in the cuisine.

Tacos and burritos largely developed naturally through Mexican culture, and are a heritage food that they brought with them voluntarily into this country.

Southern comfort food came from the white slave owners providing such food to their indentured people, rather than being brought by those people. It wouldn't really be a heritage remembrance in a positive light for many, as it could be seen as an extension of the cultural loss they suffered being transferred here involuntarily.

Okay, when you put it that way, then it should be called African History Month instead of Black.

They are remembering the many Black people who fought for the rights they have today. So, it can be considered southern comfort food, but they identify with the food as their culture.

[Twisted]

Okay, when you put it that way, then it should be called African History Month instead of Black.

They are remembering the many Black people who fought for the rights they have today. So, it can be considered southern comfort food, but they identify with the food as their culture.

I generally agree that it should more likely be called African American History Month, unless we're going to talk about celebrating the very extensive history of black people all over the world.

I also agree that, if it were called African American History Month, then this could be a food identified specifically with African Americans.

It is important to remember that views can vary greatly even within the black community on whether or not they'd want "comfort food" to be associated with their culture and heritage, just because of that touchy part of their history. It's similar to how Germany likes to try to downplay their history around World War 2 and the Holocaust. One doesn't like to be reminded of an unhappy past.

[Echo]

Some southern comfort food and flavors etc were also brought here from African Slaves.

If a black chef feels that she/he wants to celebrate Black History Month with the what she feels is the food that represents her culture and her people I do not understand what the problem is.

If a Mexican chef made Mexican food in honor of Mexican Independence day would there really be such a horrified reaction?

Racism is a very real problem that exists in our world but this is not a case of it. This is a case of sharing.

My Black friends make soul food constantly and they don't have a problem with the fact that it is a part of their culture even if it came about as a direct result of slavery.

Edit to add: Africans were stripped of their names and their homeland, enslaved, sold like cattle, beaten ,raped and oppressed here. Its the worst mark there is on our country.

However, they did develop a culture here that endures to this day.

Soul food is a fusion of what the slaves brought here inside their hearts and what they were introduced to here in The States. I don't believe eating this food is a celebration of slavery or racist at all.

It is a celebration of their unwavering strength and of a culture that was born of oppression and incredible resilience.

[cubby]

Make that meal with a large glass of iced tea and you would have Sunday at my Grandma's House. Sounds like good food to me that I can no longer eat for health reasons. Yes this food is very southern. I know I'm southern.

[Echo]

I think its interesting and important to learn the history of these foods. Many racists (past and present) use "fried chicken and watermelon" to demean black people. I think the more we know the less power their words have.

I never knew Fried Chicken was actually brought over by the Scottish who taught kitchen slaves how to make it.

For better or worse, Soul Food tells the history of the African American in our country. .

Not Yo’ Mama’s Fried Chicken
Black people love themselves some fried chicken. You cannot have a social function without fried chicken. Fried chicken has become such a staple of the black family household that it’s just one more thing we’re believed to have invented.

Fried chicken is a staple of traditional Scottish cuisine, originally deep fried in fat. When the Scots arrive in the rural south, they brought their recipes with them and taught the kitchen slaves how to prepare them. The slaves, who were able to bring spices from their native lands, as well as cultivate local herbs, enhanced the flavor of the chicken dishes, as well as substituting oil for fat.

Fried chicken became popular amongst slaves because they were allowed to raise chickens in their quarters, and they soon discovered that fried chicken could be kept well and eaten as snack when working in the fields

http://www.slavefood.info/

[backlash]

they forgot watermelon.

dumbasses.

[cubby]

chicken was and still is cheap, easy to cook, cheap and easy to raise if you're talking live chickens. Most anybody in the country can keep chickens and collect the eggs and when they get too old to produce eggs you have dinner. A bag of feed once every 3 months to supplement what the chickens scratch out around the house and you've spent very little on raising them. In the deep sounth where it doesn't get really cold chickens didn't even have houses they just roosted wherever they wanted. This kind of chicken raising applied to poor people white and black in the 1930's. 40's, 50's. and in some areas, today.

[Echo]

The term soul food became popular in the 1960s. The origins of soul food, however, are much older and can be traced back to Africa. Foods such as rice, sorghum (known by Europeans as "guinea corn"), and okra — all common elements in West African cuisine — were introduced to the Americas as a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and became dietary staples among enslaved Africans. They also comprise an important part of American southern cooking. Many culinary historians believe that in the beginning of the 14th century, around the time of early African exploration, European explorers brought their own food supplies and introduced them into the African diet. Foods such as corn and cassava from the Americas, turnips from Morocco and cabbage from Portugal would play an important part in the history of African American cuisine.[1]

When the European slave trade began in the early 1400s, the diet of newly enslaved Africans changed on the long journeys from their homeland. It was during this time that some of the indigenous crops of Africa began showing up in the Americas.[2]

Enslavers fed their captives as cheaply as possible, often with throwaway foods from the plantation, forcing slaves to make do with the ingredients at hand. In slave households, vegetables were the tops of turnips and beets and dandelions. Soon, slaves were cooking with new types of greens: collards, kale, cress, mustard, and pokeweed. They also developed recipes which used lard; cornmeal; and offal, discarded cuts of meat such as pigs' feet, oxtail, ham hocks, chitterlings (pig small intestines), pig ears, hog jowls, tripe and skin. Cooks added onions, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf to enhance the flavors. Some slaves supplemented their meager diets by maintaining small plots made available to them to grow their own vegetables, and many engaged in subsistence fishing and hunting, which yielded wild game for the table. Foods such as raccoon, squirrel, opossum, turtle, and rabbit were, until the 1950s, very common fare among the still predominantly rural and southern African American population.[3]

Is it strange that it totally freaks me out that some people still eat Possum and Squirrel? But I LOVE me some Rabbit.

[malq]

pc police out of control.

Blacks shot themselves in the foot.
The blacks created this by being oversensitive in so many areas they cant even have it their way anymore. Not just the blacks being over sensitive but non blacks abusing the whole race thing is a factor as well. I do believe this is a good sign. It shows the pendulum has swung and it time to stop making a big deal out of everything on both sides. Its the only way we will ever to be able to shrug.