Denver Public Schools did the same thing "in honor" of Martin Luther King Day.

Thank you Lisa for pointing out the complications of these sorts of complaints.

It's not simple or easy to balance equal with individual, modern with tradition. Those foods are traditional black dishes because of the slave conditions and foods available. - but they have endured over so many years to be a comfort food.

So which is it?

To me, this is further proof that at some point soon we will need to let go of racial distinctions to move on as a human race. Painfully for many, it means leaving some of the things we call "heritage" behind.

I gave up fried chicken to become vegetarian, and I don't feel any less "black".

I think the problem is more that people have become too sensitive to the race issue so that anything associated with race has become offensive. This is a case of a stereotype that is not, or at least should not be, offensive. No one gets upset at the stereotype that Irish people like corned beef and cabbage and we should celebrate St. Patrick's day by eating that. The problem here is that even people who are not racist in the conventional sense do not treat Irish people and black people the same way.

I found myself discussing why the idea of a black person eating fried chicken and watermelon is considered offensive. Are black people not allowed to have a unique cultural identity, like any other group? As the example of this chef points out, some of the stereotypes about what kinds of food black people eat match up with reality, so what's wrong with saying that? Escargot is a French food. Paella comes from Spain. Feijoada is unequivocably Brazilian slave-food. It's ignorant to pretend that American blacks don't have a cuisine of their own, and maybe it includes fried chicken, black-eyed peas, and collards.

It's especially interesting, given that portrayals of black sterotypes were much more accepted in times when racism was much more accepted. Now that we are trying to be less racist (ha ha) or at the very least, less overtly racist, it's ironic that we may also be becoming less accepting of black people expressing their own culture.

I found myself saying, "Are black people suddenly not allowed to eat watermelon or fried chicken, because it'll reinforce a stereotype about blackness?" It's as if, in an attempt to be post-racial, we have defined the noticing of stereotypically black things by non-blacks as offensive. But what message does that send to black people who happen to have one or more stereotypically black characteristics?

This is a fascinating little conundrum. I've heard John Leguizamo talk in his comedy routine about how he grew up in a multi-cultural urban neighborhood, and everybody threw racial terms around. It's not racist, he argues, just acknowledging each others' differences. It'd be ridiculous to pretend that your Jewish friend didn't have a big nose and curly hair, if that's what he had. On the other hand, we have propaganda posters like the Nazis used, portraying the leering, crook-nosed Jew.

I think the real message is that there is a spectrum, from pretending racial attributes don't exist, to vilifying and ridiculing them, and no matter where you are on the spectrum, you can still be racist. Actually not being racist means getting off that particular spectrum, but it's very hard to do that.

When I was in the Navy, my ship had a similar menu on Martin Luther King day, even if we were out in the middle of the ocean, thousands of miles from home. It wasn't just fried chicken. We called it 'Soul Food', and the menu included collard greens, fried chicken livers and chitterlings. Our lead Chef was a black guy from Alabama. He grew up on a farm, and slaughtered hogs as a kid, so for him, this was down home cooking, and he didn't see anything racial about it. I just saw it as good eats. On Cinco De Mayo, all of the Chicanos got together in the Galley to cook Mexican food (or Tex-Mex, since a majority were from Texas), and on Columbus Day, the mess decks served Italian.

This article reminded me of one I just read at my school about our dining hall's "picnic bar" being renamed: http://daily.swarthmore.edu/2010/2/5/picnic-bar/

Check the comments.

Just sounds southern to me. Sounds delicious too. It's only racist if you say, "hey that's a racist menu!". Time to move forward

My university, instead of serving Southern-style food for Black History Month, seems to be serving African-style food (although I'm not sure what dishes, since I never eat in the caf). That said, serving Southern-style food for Black History Month is not inherently racist; I agree with WanderingOak and Jeremy.

We've got Black History Month in Canada, too, but I really think this issue is a very US-centric thing. Though I'm very familiar with the connections between food and culture (being of Polish descent myself, growing up in an Icelandic community, etc., with very strong ethnic communities, food has always been an intergral part of preserving cultural traditions) it wasn't until the past couple of years, that I finally clued into the watermelon/black people connection, and even more recently that I was enlightened about fried chicken being a black thing. This after a near lifetime of studying food history. That these should also be considered racist is confusing to me. I truly didn't get the Obama/fried chicken thing. At first, I couldn't see why it was made, then couldn't understand why it was also racist. It's completely outside my experience.

So to me, seeing menus like this for Black History Month has no racist connotations at all. I would interpret is as cultural, and enjoy it as such. It's very hard for me to see racism in it, any more than I'd see a pierogi fest as racist.

Nothing you can do about it, but the clip doesn't want to play. "We're sorry, but the clip you selected isn't available from your location."

Based on the thumbnail I do get (argh you silly sites, why do you make me press "Play" before telling me I'm not allowed to watch?!) I think this is the same movie, which I can access:

http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhg6KzCz49sdd6K4

I have a feeling some people, understandably fed up with racism, still remember and experience humilating insults for eating soul food, and it is this shame which they are reacting to. "Don't let the whites see us eating this stuff, they'll make fun of us!" But you know, bigots will take any fabulous thing and pretend there's something wrong with it.

Anyway, it's fried chicken, collard greens and water melon! Makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Coincidently, just yesterday I was wanting a soul food restaurant... Beer batter fish, ymmmm. Ok, gotta go look up soul food recipes now :)

What's always odd to me is the idea of Black History Month as a "holiday". It's not something to be celebrated in the same way, it's a time that's set aside to make sure we learn something. In school, it was the time to make sure that we acknowledged the contributions of African-Americans who otherwise get swept under the rug. It's about driving home the fact that hey, history isn't about white people only. So to me, it doesn't even make sense to have a special menu. What do I learn about slave regimens in the civil war, or black soldiers in other wars, or black scientists and inventors and political figures, by eating fried chicken?

This is something that's been bothering me a lot lately -- I was thinking about how as a child I used to seriously LOVE those weird little cultural days we'd have -- kids would bring in traditional dishes or clothes from their families or whatever and we'd talk about the country or religion or culture they were from. I thought it was the coolest thing ever as a five year old -- probably because it largely involved getting to eat curry or matzah or scones or arepas or fried plantains in class, or getting to see someone's grandmother's kimono or irish step dancing shoes or prayer mat or whatever. But now this strikes me as incredibly offensive, restrictive, deductive, culturally fetishistic, and a fine example of how we teach and enforce racial stereotypes and othering from a young age.

But at the same time, I can't remember a single kid who wasn't incredibly excited to show and tell some cultural artifact or whatever, (and I sure as heck was psyched about bringing in babcia's pierogis.) And in its own way I think that getting that knowledge was incredibly important to also teach that "not all countries and races and people and religions are like the one you have." So was all that important to teach kids about diversity, or was it the single most horrifying thing in existence? It's so offensive to me now I can't even think about it without cringing -- but like this it's such a grey area. How do we manage these things?

My college has that same menu every year at least once during Black History Month. It's a big joke to all the students. They also add an all-Black choir to sing in the cafeteria too. It's more embarrassing than anything.

"What do I learn about slave regimens in the civil war, or black soldiers in other wars, or black scientists and inventors and political figures, by eating fried chicken?"

Because food is apart of history too. What was eaten in the Victorian Era is different than what we eat now. There is history and books on that as well, and I can see how bringing in history from an aspect that students and children can access it in a physical or visual way - then I say go for it! Serve chicken and explain why it became a staple, teach the history so we can learn from our mistakes, but leave the mistakes of the past in the classroom. When we go outside we need to set aside whatever negative reason started habits and learn to accept them as something positive now. Because they ARE positive now because they have completely different connotations today than when they started. And we choose what those connotations today are when we react to things everyday - either negatively or positively.

A place I used to work, every year they'd have a lunch one day in February to raise money for a Black scholarship fund. The menu was pretty much the same as in the example here, except we had homemade sweet tea for the drink. It was great food at a fair value for a good cause, but it always did seem a little strange, but since it was a small group of African American women who arranged it and made the food, that seemed to make it OK in a way I haven't quite been able to articulate--it would have been different if that had been the Special Black History Menu handed down from corporate. WanderingOak's way of framing it is helpful, though--"here, this is my cultural food, try some!" is a totally different message from, "there, that's your cultural food, Diversity, yay!"

I remember a similar "Martin Luther King Day" menu at my elementary school. I asked my mom "Is that what they ate in the days of Martin Luther King?"
When she stopped laughing, she explained that it wasn't that long ago that he had been alive. I tried to get her to explain how the menu was significant, but I don't remember getting a satisfactory answer. I might have decided on my own that it was what slaves ate or something.

My middle school had a 'friend chicken' lunch special. For Martin Luther King Day.

Brilliant.

I've never understood that stereotype. Fried chicken, along with those other items, are all traditional *southern* dishes. They're not exclusive to blacks in any way whatsoever.

I have noticed that southerners in general don't use these stereotypes. It's somewhat hard to make fun of a group of people for liking the same foods you are eating.

KUMBAYAH! We African Americans most now realizet that our creator allowed us to be in-slaved to build a nation whose people would be allowed to worship His Holy Name;"YAHWEH". You may ask the question why? The answer is because you are His People (Isaiyah 19:23-24) And for the simple fact you are the strongest peoply. He in all His divine wisdom knew for slavery to be successful it had to be the put on the strongest people. Needless to say it was. From Africa we came to do YAH'S Will.But over that long and dismal time we lost or I should say we where not allowed to read. Because of the slave master's fear. Now that we are free we still are afarid to imbrace HIS HOLY NAME. Winston Church said it best "we khave nothing to fear but fear itself". Please open your eyes to the truth. For example the Jamaicans say JAH. And every man says AllaluYAH. Are we strong enough to give theme back there god and serve "YAHWEH" The one Living and true Father In Heaven YAh. It's not rocket science it's commonsense that our slave master would not praise our Creator.

KUMBAYAH! We African Americans most now realizet that our creator allowed us to be in-slaved to build a nation whose people would be allowed to worship His Holy Name;"YAHWEH". You may ask the question why? The answer is because you are His People (Isaiyah 19:23-24) And for the simple fact you are the strongest peoply. He in all His divine wisdom knew for slavery to be successful it had to be the put on the strongest people. Needless to say it was. From Africa we came to do YAH'S Will.But over that long and dismal time we lost or I should say we where not allowed to read. Because of the slave master's fear. Now that we are free we still are afarid to imbrace HIS HOLY NAME. Winston Church said it best "we khave nothing to fear but fear itself". Please open your eyes to the truth. For example the Jamaicans say JAH. And every man says AllaluYAH. Are we strong enough to give theme back there god and serve "YAHWEH" The one Living and true Father In Heaven YAh. It's not rocket science it's commonsense that our slave master would not praise our Creator.