Private School Celebrates Black History Month By Offering A Deliciously Racist Menu Of Fried Chicken And Watermelon

As offensive as this whole idea of serving your student body a menu of fried chicken, collared greens, corn bread and watermelon to celebrate ‘Black History Month’ is you have to laugh because what bonehead came up with this idea? Seriously, I would have loved to be a fly on the wall to hear how this planning went down at Carondelet High School for Girls in Concord located in California, because I have a feeling at some point someone asked WHAT DO BLACK PEOPLE EAT? 

Wait, I remember seeing something when I was growing up that may help us out there, hang on, let me find it.. 

And then some asshole whipped out some super offensive advertisement from the 1900s.

Or else rang up Paula Deen to get her opinion.

 Hey perfect and then after lunch we can all put on a little minstrel show and air a screener of Song Of The South!

After the amazingly lame lunchtime celebratory menu was pulled, according to the NBC Bay Area:

“I’d like to apologize for the announcement and any hurt this caused students, parents or community members,” Principal Nancy Libby said in the letter. “Please know that at no time at Carondelet do we wish to perpetrate racial stereotypes.”

University of San Francisco professor James Taylor said he can see why some students and teachers would be offended, even though the lunch may have been well-intentioned.

“Chicken, watermelon, collard greens ”” these stereotypes of black Southern culture that come from the same place where the N-word comes from,” he said.

 

I’m not sure how this was well-intended. It’s like two steps away from having the cafeteria workers serve these kids while wearing black face. I’m sort of shocked they didn’t also include the typical meal of a slave with these other items, but I guess salt herring and cornmeal doesn’t have a lot of nutritional value.

The article suggests this all could have been avoided by asking black students and parents and asked them what was appropriate. I have a feeling considering they were celebrating Black History Month the menu could have included celebratory foods like pizza and cake or maybe a taco bar or sushi. You know, PARTY FOODS.  It isn’t like fried chicken and watermelon don’t have their place in black history, but they have just as much of a place in WHITE history too, especially in the south. The difference is watermelon was used throughout the early 1900s in horrible tropes that depicted black people as lazy simpletons who could be made happy by throwing them a watermelon to gnaw on.

You would think adults in charge of educating kids would be aware of this little fact.

(Image: getty images)