Xaverian Brother School served Fried Chicken for black history month (Boston: private schools, college)

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by massnative71

It's not just a Xaverian thing. Most high school kids realistically aren't going to have much of an appetite for "exploration" (maybe save for a school like BLS or Snowden). The point of this was merely to have a little fun, while at the same time giving a little acknowledgement to a particular group's contribution to American cuisine. You wouldn't think it be an issue, but...

Some signage/poster things/ perhaps digital signage/QR codes that link you to a website or something.... near the lunch line and around the cafeteria would cost $0 and be totally passive for students to engage with or not. Xaverian kids are smart, although I wouldn't say most XBHS boys are culturally progressive but I'm sure some are curious. and some are African American.

At an elite private school, there should be some level of "appetite" beyond the most cursory of contributions. Fried Chicken really is an English American dish more so than some soul-food dishes..if we're being totally honest. Again, I'm not offended because culturally it IS black food. but let's not act like we cant do better.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Some signage/poster things/ perhaps digital signage/QR codes that link you to a website or something.... near the lunch line and around the cafeteria would cost $0 and be totally passive for students to engage with or not. Xaverian kids are smart, although I wouldn't say most XBHS boys are culturally progressive but I'm sure some are curious. and some are African American.

At an elite private school, there should be some level of "appetite" beyond the most cursory of contributions. Fried Chicken really is an English American dish more so than some soul-food dishes..if we're being totally honest. Again, I'm not offended because culturally it IS black food. but let's not act like we cant do better.

Like I said, we need to be realistic. School cafeterias are limited in the number of choices they can give and by how much can go to waste. Of course something like that could be worth trying at some point (maybe even have students view the menu in advance and at least get a "rough count"), but would be a much bigger undertaking and require a lot more planning than a cafeteria employee deciding on the whim "let's do fried chicken next week".

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Like I said, we need to be realistic. School cafeterias are limited in the number of choices they can give and by how much can go to waste. Of course something like that could be worth trying at some point (maybe even have students view the menu in advance and at least get a "rough count"), but would be a much bigger undertaking and require a lot more planning than a cafeteria employee deciding on the whim "let's do fried chicken next week".

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Barbeque also come from the West African traiditon of cooking your food over an open pit. Indeed, "the word barbecue also has roots in West Africa among the Hausa, who used the term “babbake” to describe a complex of words referring to grilling, toasting, building a large fire, singeing hair or feathers and cooking food over a long period of time over an extravagant fire."

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...avagant%20fire.

umm
Something like... Barbecue?

Turn down the white apologist-ness a little bit and you'll see its not that complicated/deep..

What more is you can serve fried chicken or gnocchi for all I care but you can also supplement it with "Some signage/poster things/ perhaps digital signage/QR codes that link you to a website or something" like I said. Just leave it there all month. It'll offer you some cover for when you serve Fried Chickn or at least I hope it would. I would hope that not the only #BHM thing they do for all of February, I assume its not.

[Lampert]

Originally Posted by id77

The original meaning and cultural significance doesn't really matter today aside from understanding the origins of the trope, but what does matter (and is covered later in the article) is that it got picked up and carries on to this day as a dog whistle to racists: "It's still a way to express racial [contempt] without getting into serious trouble," as the article quotes.

We shouldn't be upset about its use today because we may or may not know about a silent movie or its terribly racist director or that eating with one's hands was seen as dirty 100 years ago. We should be upset with its use today because acting like it's no big deal is exactly what those ugly racist elements want to see from their dog whistles. There's also absolutely nothing inherently bad about cheering on a friend named Brandon, but if you say "Let's Go" to him, there will be people who will understand your innocent cheer in a very different way, and that's exactly what's happening here with fried chicken.

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

In the Boston area specifically a lot of African Americans eat African food.

Also, the cooking is somewhat alike- there are mountains of evidence to point to that. Sweet Potatoes approximate yams, collard greens approximate African greens. Jambalaya and Gumbo approximate Africans stew with a switch of protein usually from fish to pork/chicken/sausage. Carolina Gold Rice is a descendent of West African Rice. Pigeon peas, black-eyed peas, and okra all have west African domestication roots.

Barbeque also come from the West African traiditon of cooking your food over an open pit. Indeed, "the word barbecue also has roots in West Africa among the Hausa, who used the term “babbake” to describe a complex of words referring to grilling, toasting, building a large fire, singeing hair or feathers and cooking food over a long period of time over an extravagant fire."

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...avagant%20fire.

There are more similarities with spices and heat level too..

These are the things that actually should be posted around the cafeteria and explored during Black History Month...not simply serving fried Chicken. But it's Xaverian so what could you really expect.

It was more of a joke about the fact that a random dude working in a cafeteria becomes somehow an expert in african cusine just because he is black.
Like an Italian guy working at Domino's should be an expert in the crafting of pizza

PS the word barbecue doesn't come from west Africa the article you cited says it comes from either European or native Americans. But as the article points out I am sure it was common in Africa too, there is nothing that special about cooking meat in a fire pit. The main dish of a luau in the pacific it's basically a pig roasted in a pit. It's probably found anywhere as a technique.

[msRB311]

So you would have been more satisfied if they served barbecue chicken over fried chicken?

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by msRB311

So you would have been more satisfied if they served barbecue chicken over fried chicken?

No, I like Fired Chicken a lot more. But I think the school should try to get more creative or at least offer some food history in the cafeteria that contextualizes Black food in America.

Barbecue chicken would be more interesting historically and cause no pushback from the media. For many black students they're going to be offended.

Sidenote: You all should watch High on the Hog on Netflix.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by Lampert

PS the word barbecue doesn't come from west Africa the article you cited says it comes from either European or native Americans.\.

No. Did you read the article?

The common cultural narrative of barbecue, however, exclusively assigns its origins to Native Americans and Europeans; the very etymology of the word is said to derive from both Carib through Spanish (barbacoa – to roast over hot coals on a wooden framework) or from western European sources (barbe-a-queue in French – “head to tail” – which fits nicely with contemporary ideas of no-waste eating and consuming offal)

^This European one makes no sense to me... Barbecue is full of waste, most of the animals isnt babreqcued. It doesnt mention a flame or an open pit.

...

"If anything, both in etymology and culinary technique, barbecue is as African as it is Native American and European, though enslaved Africans have largely been erased from the modern story of American barbecue. At best, our ancestors are seen as mindless cooking machines who prepared the meat under strict white supervision, if at all; at worst, barbecue was something done “for” the enslaved, as if they were being introduced to a novel treat. In reality, they shaped the culture of New World barbecuing traditions, from jerking in Jamaica to anticuchos in Peru to cooking traditions in the colonial Pampas. And the word barbecue also has roots in West Africa among the Hausa, who used the term “babbake” to describe a complex of words referring to grilling, toasting, building a large fire, singeing hair or feathers and cooking food over a long period of time over an extravagant fire."


This makes way more sense.

but there are European influences of course.

Regardless its still a part of Black History. It doesn't have to be SOLELY black history. Very little in America is.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

umm
Something like... Barbecue?

Turn down the white apologist-ness a little bit and you'll see its not that complicated/deep..

What more is you can serve fried chicken or gnocchi for all I care but you can also supplement it with "Some signage/poster things/ perhaps digital signage/QR codes that link you to a website or something" like I said. Just leave it there all month. It'll offer you some cover for when you serve Fried Chickn or at least I hope it would. I would hope that not the only #BHM thing they do for all of February, I assume its not.

If you're talking about leaving it there for a month, then sure.


Also remember that BBQ was once looked down upon by a certain segment (northern white elite), it was an issue during Clinton's presidency (some say his forced introduction of it put in on the road to becoming a respected part of American cuisine among all races, regions, economic classes...). But I have no doubt, the same people who made a stink about the fried chicken will have a #woke moment over pulled pork and ribs as well.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by massnative71

If you're talking about leaving it there for a month, then sure.


Also remember that BBQ was once looked down upon by a certain segment (northern white elite), it was an issue during Clinton's presidency (some say his forced introduction of it put in on the road to becoming a respected part of American cuisine among all races, regions, economic classes...). But I have no doubt, the same people who made a stink about the fried chicken will have a #woke moment over pulled pork and ribs as well.

Yes, leave it up all month. It's super free, simple and probably widely accessible all over. Or make some seventh graders put it together in History Class. Whatever.

And you might be right anything could become faux outrage. Just do your best to hedge it, Fried Chicken though delicious is not the best choice. But I don't know the full context.

[ben young]

Kids are Americans, give them Hot Dogs and Coke