Political & Elections

Maybe it was a salute to his southern roots?   Everyone in the South eats chicken and waffles....no matter what your color is.

Again, Martin Luther King Day is meant to commemorate the man, not African American culture. It's like saying many southern blacks like chicken and waffles together as a meal. MLK was black. So he must have liked chicken and waffles.

St. Patrick's Day may have started out centuries ago to commemorate an individual, but today that holiday has evolved and celebrates Irish heritage in general. From wikipedia:

'Saint Patrick's Day (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig) is a religious holiday on the 17th of March. It is named after Saint Patrick (circa AD 387–461), the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of Ireland. It began as a purely Catholic holiday and became an official feast day in the early 17th century. It has gradually become more of a secular celebration of Ireland's culture'.

Again, that is not the case with MLK Day, the day is meant to celebrate him and his efforts to promote justice and equality. Another distinction is that MLK is within living memory, unlike a legendary saint such as St. Patrick.

As I mentioned before, George Washington's cherry pie is related to a tall tale, not about Americans or people of European descent and their culture, but about GW. If his birthday had evolved to become symbolic of the country as a whole , and not George himself then a maybe we'd be doing the winter equivalent of a fourth of July spread.

A menu that is a special occasion food with no such connotations or associations would have been fine. And if a group of African American students wanted chicken and waffles just because they wanted to have chicken and waffles, that's obviously fine, too. But to put it out and advertise it to the broader community as a MLK Day menu was simply not in the best taste. Again, none of this should be the biggest deal. Sometimes people get it wrong and they learn and life goes on. I think the chef meant well and even did the right thing by asking the students. But if the goal was to celebrate MLK, I think there were better ways.

My grandmother grew up in the south. ... I couldn't get through a meal at house without eating something fried and absolutely delicious.

My grandmother's cooking was the same. Her Banana Fritters were great.

Except, she lived her entire life in New England.

waffles are awesome.

so is chicken.

some people are just looking for trouble.

My grandmother grew up in the south.  I suspect that many of the foods she ate with great frequency were eaten by those of any color, and across all economic lines.  Fried chicken is absolutely a southern thing.   So is sweet tea.  

I think medieval clergy preferred wine...

Green wine?

Not dark green but pale green is certainly possible without modern coloring agents.

"Corned" beef is salt cured beef and was certainly a medieval food. Cabbage saved Northern Europe from scurvy before the advent of modern transportation.

I wonder what they did with all those snakes? Properly prepared reptile is quite tasty. The story about him driving the snakes out of Ireland is probably bowdlerized. I betcha he got everybody to cooperate in bashing their little heads and a fine feast of smashed ophidian was enjoyed by all.

-- Edited by BigG on Thursday 27th of January 2011 09:50:19 AM

I had never heard of the combination of chicken and waffles. A quick chicken and waffles web search brought up pages of hits. I never knew that there were so many chicken and waffles restaurants, SLS. Your husband might be on to something.

Here's a little wiki history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_and_waffles

After reading a few of the web sites and the wiki article, I don't think the menu was meant to be an insult to the remembrance of ML King Jr. I love the idea of serving foods that honor our traditions, and a nice comforting soul food style menu seems very appropriate. There's no shame in keeping our traditions alive and introducing them to others. If it's being done in a ridiculing way, then that's different, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

IMO the reason it's insensitive to link MLK with chicken and waffles is because MLK himself was not known in any specific or personal way related to this meal. The meal was featured for no other reason than the fact that it is a stereotypical dish associated with black people. Stereotyping black people kind of runs in stark contrast to everything MLK stood for. It is different from, say, serving cherry pie for Washington's bday,which is based on an anecdote related to him even if it's one that was mostly folklore.

I am not buying the argument about people who are too easily offended. I'm not either, personally, but because not everyone looks hard to BE offended, doesn't give the excuse to anyone to offend or be insensitive, either.

I don't get the offense either-- unless the cafeteria served bad, undelicious chicken and waffles that would be insulting to black people who wanted to eat a combination of foods that, traditionally, a lot of black people like.

But I still don't understand. Would it have been okay if it said "meatloaf and french fries?" Or something else? I'm slow, indulge me. What is wrong with chicken or waffles? He was a brave man, and he wasn't a waffler, so I don't see any insult!!

I don't understand the offense. Why would that possibly be offensive? Two of my favorite foods, is there some racially offensive component to that? Or was that what he ate the day he was murdered? Now that would definitely be awful. Apparently I'm not very bright either! At least not in the "how not to offend" category.