Running racism in America thread

Also ... why am I struggling to type "fried chicken" and not "friend chicken"? Is this some latent anti-Quaker bias I'm fighting?

 

Because you're a good man, who appreciates the loving quiet and respectful crunch of a meetinghouse chicken.

 

But those blocks of government cheese...
That was a big thing in my neighborhood in the 1980s. Notices about the distribution times were posted on the front page of the local weekly. I don't know if I saw a cheese slicer doing work at a supermarket until I was 10 or 11. I had no idea it was unusual.

By the way, the Fuzzy Zoeller remarks were not in 2013, WriteThinking. They were in 1997. And there were a couple racist-tinged comments there.

"They." "Boy," when slaves and adult African-Americans have regularly been called "boy" for a couple centuries.

(Part of me wants to cut Sergio slack because he was born in a different culture, but his comments were in 2013 after he'd been playing in the states for 15 years. Then again, he was playing in a white-dominated sport, who knows.)

Never been a big watermelon fan. Just doesn't do it for me.

Chicken and waffles were the hot trend 10-15 years ago. Even a racist city like Boston where the black population isn't huge had a place that specialized in chicken and waffles. To further the threadjack, Anthony Bourdain was a big fan of "black" food. I feel like every U.S. show unearthed a place that served it up. Some people call it "white tourism," I say that he was showing appreciation for good eats.

 

Doing some high horse dressage here.

How does someone work as a journalist without asking people about their subjects? I've heard the snotty rejoinder, "Let me Google that for you," for years. Bleah. Asking a person and then seeking out documentation always gives me a more nuanced answer, regardless of the discipline I happen to be working in.

One other thing... I have always worked on the assumption that everyone knows more than me. Finding out what other people know has never failed to lead to some delight I would have otherwise missed.

Dismounting now. There's a cloth roll of sausage calling from the fridge.

I will pray for you, Brother Doctor.

::Strolls off humming "Simple Gifts."::

 

Of horses high and low I'll say this:

I didn't post any of those links to teach anyone here anything.

Rather only to demonstrate how easy that information is to stumble across, even for the most casual consumer of news.

To say nothing of a casual consumer of pop culture, like rap or the films of Spike Lee.

 

ok

Students' Blackface Video Sparks Investigation by Archdiocese of Philadelphia

 

Roscoe's became a "thing" when Obama went to one in L.A. We went to Long Beach once. Good but too pricey and a lengthy wait. Ten years ago, $10 for a piece of chicken and a waffle. There is one down the street from Disneyland on Harbor Blvd. Went there once. Again, lengthy wait if you don't care about the prices.

What is it about breakfast places? There is a Snooze nearby. The wait is always an hour unless you get there right when it opens.

I was interested when a small place opened close to us -- Furai Chicken and Waffles. It is Asian, tiny and might be take-out only. Not sure exactly what it is, but it looks like there are different kinds of spicy and the chicken might be cooked in waffle batter. Everything is covered in radish sauce. Yuck.

 

My Roscoe's for years was the one up on Gower in Hollywood. Ate there once a month.

I think Obama went to the one on Pico, now closed.

If you're ever in Redondo Beach looking for breakfast, go to the Cozy Cafe on the PCH.

 

I used to work at the Daily Breeze, so I've been to all the South Bay hangouts.

 

We had a newsroom photographer who once turned in a photo to run as a big, stand-alone display on the full-color metro front of the next day's paper. The photo depicted an old Black lady, maybe 75 to 80, sitting alone on a park bench during a local gathering, holding a huge slice of watermelon in both hands and grinning from ear to ear.

I took the photo proof to the managing editor and said, "Want this to run four columns on 1B tomorrow?"

She turned eight shades of red in about three seconds. Then she called the photog in for a little talk.

One of those newsroom tales I'll never forget.