School apologizes after serving fried chicken, corn bread for Black History Month lunch – IOTW Report

School apologizes after serving fried chicken, corn bread for Black History Month lunch

Wednesday, 22 February 2017, 1:30 MJA Uncategorized 39

EAG: PENNINGTON, N.J. – A New Jersey school district and its food vendor are apologizing for a culturally insensitive Black History Month lunch menu that featured fried chicken, sweet potato casserole, greens and cornbread.

“The decision to include these items without any context or explanation, reinforces racial stereotypes and is not consistent with our district mission and efforts to improve cultural competency among our students and staff,” Hope Township superintendent Thomas Smith wrote in a statement cited by NJ.com.

The issue centers on the Feb. 16 lunch menu at Hopewell Valley Central High School: fried chicken, sweet potato casserole, sautéed spinach, mac & cheese, cornbread, and peach or apple crisp.

“The suggestion was to do something to celebrate soul food,” Cathy Penna told the news site.

Penna is the vice president of Pomptonian, the district’s food vendor. She contends the menu was created with the help of a school food service director, and was not intended to offend anyone.  MORE

39 Comments on School apologizes after serving fried chicken, corn bread for Black History Month lunch

  6. I’m white and I eat all those things!
    Give me a break.
    I suppose now I can’t eat Guacamole Dip on Cinco de Mayo.
    or
    Egg Roles on Chinese New Year
    or
    Spagetti on Liberation Day
    or…………you get it.

    PC liberals are assholes

  11. The story states that it isn’t clear who, if anyone, actually complained. Geezuz, now people are apologizing for non-issues even when there are no complaints. Hell, that’s probably the best lunch those kids have had in years.

  14. This is cultural appropriation. There is no such thing as “soul food”. It’s called southern food. Africans didn’t bring corn bread with them from the Congo. These are the foods theirs masters made them cook. If you want authentic African food then eat a monkey.

  16. So in deferment of last years debacle, this year, during Black History Month, we will not serve anything that our black citizens might enjoy to eat, as we do not wish to be labeled racist. Everyone enjoy Top Ramen……oh chit!

  18. I am beginning to think blacks come up with these menus so they can screech about them. Maybe the creation of racist menus to yell about is a time-honored tradition of Black History… or is it Black.Heritage. I dunno.

  19. “Penna is the vice president of Pomptonian, the district’s food vendor. She contends the menu was created with the help of a school food service director,”

    I’ll bet a month of internet credits that the “food service director” is black.

  20. Some people will never, ever grow to fuck up! Always lurching there on the sideline of life waiting to pounce on the slightest thing that only a very twisted mind could consider an insult.
    I’d wager that the nerd who came up with this “insult” is a white, liberal, female social worker.

  23. “The decision to include these items without any context or explanation, reinforces racial stereotypes”

    uhhh, isn’t it racist to automatically associate certain food items with a certain race?

    would it have been doubly racist to serve vanilla ice cream and white milk too during the month?

  25. WTF?!?!? That’s a pile of horse-pucky. I work in a large inner-city hospital and our cafeteria serves that stuff up all the time, not just for Black History Month, and employees and visitors love it. They also have fried okra, chicken ‘n waffles and other soul food. These people are nuts!

  26. @Moe Tom:

    I’d wager that the nerd who came up with this “insult” is a white, liberal, female social worker.

    And you’d WIN! And I’d wager that the insensitive person who came up with the actual menu is a black, liberal, female school sub-administrator. We’d BOTH win!

  31. I’ve said this so many times it’s getting painful: How in the world did food get caught up in “negative stereotyping?” I LOVE fried chicken and cornbread! And Hush Puppies! But, somehow, if I acknowledge that Hush Puppies has a “black origin” I’m a racist?!

  32. I’m half Italian. So, if someone said to me, “Hey, Irony! Why don’t you go out and get a Sicilian slice of pizza for lunch! Hahaha!” I’m supposed to be offended? My response would be, “Wow, a Sicilian slice sounds great. Thanks!” I just don’t get how a love of certain foods is in any way involved in racism.
    “Hey, you know those people really love fried chicken.”
    “Why wouldn’t they? EVERYONE loves fried chicken!”

  33. Please explain it to me again. If I take a Black Rights Activist to KFC for lunch, am I guilty of perpetuating a negative stereotype or cultural appropriation?

    Seriously people. It’s FOOD! Eat it and enjoy it, or get yourself some Arros con pollo.

  37. I’m of 3 races, one of them being black, and I gotta say I fucking hate fried chicken and watermelon gives me heartburn. lol. But seriously, the school had nothing to apologize for and they should all stop with the’ ____ ‘history month. It’s so tiresome.

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