Dining hall choices show racism at NU?
Northwestern University took an important step forward in embracing diversity by canceling class on Martin Luther King Day for the first time in school history.
Unfortunately, the dining halls took a step backward on MLK Day, showing NU just how much work remains in achieving King’s dream.
The food service at 1835 Hinman and, according to the nuCuisine Web site, every other NU dining hall made a careless error in choosing their menu for MLK Day. Alongside quesadillas, couscous and pasta, nuCuisine served a heaping pile of steaming stereotype for supper: fried chicken.
Aside from being one of Flavor Flav’s favorite foods, fried chicken, like collard greens and watermelon, is a stereotypically black food. Professional golfer Fuzzy Zoeller made headlines in 1998 after suggesting “that little boy” (aka Tiger Woods) would request fried chicken and collard greens be served at the Masters after he became the first African American to win golf’s most prestigious tournament.
Zoeller claimed he meant nothing by his remarks, and it’s possible NU did not consider the racist connotations of its menu. After all, dining halls serve fried chicken on a fairly regular basis. Regardless of intent, NU was at best insensitive and ignorant and at worst flat-out racist in choosing to cook a stereotypical black food on a day devoted to honoring civil rights.
But that’s not the point. The issue of race extends far beyond what food students shovel in their mouths in the dining halls.
Consider this: NU students — 70 percent of whom are white, and half of whom come from families that make more than $100,000 a year — go into 1835 Hinman to eat dinner…where they are served stereotypes on a dinner platter by a group of predominantly black, working-class cooks. Even if the choice of entrée isn’t racist, the dining hall itself nonetheless reinforces the racist notion of subservient blacks working for the white elites.
To be fair, our school is making great strides in improving diversity. The number of black professors has doubled since 2000, and NU has changed its curriculum by expanding the African-American and Latino Studies departments. If the school accepts ASG’s recommendation, Muslim students will soon have a place to pray during sporting events.
However, blacks make up just 5.5 percent of our student body — about half of the percentage at similar universities such as Harvard and Duke, according to a story in The Daily Northwestern last quarter.
And despite the increase in black professors, just 3.5 percent of tenured or tenure-track faculty members are black, according to the Faculty Diversity Committee’s 2005-2006 report. Only three percent are Hispanic.
Granted, it is probably far-fetched to call NU a racist institution. But in spite of all of the progress we have made, Monday night’s dinner shows just how far NU has to go to achieve King’s dream.
The fact that fried chicken was served is only racist when people like you make it racist. Fried chicken only becomes stereotypically black when someone makes it that way.
Rachel Wiggins
January 16, 2007 at 10:22 pm
Thank you Rachel. I come from southern Virginia, and EVERYbody of all races loves fried chicken. There are inequalities at NU, but let’s focus on the ones we can see instead of trying to infer from, of all things, dining hall food. Because I know that I might see watermelon at breakfast during Black History Month, I wouldn’t want anybody to get in a tizzy.
Justin
January 16, 2007 at 11:58 pm
I agree with what Rachel and Justin said. In addition…
1. Sodexho (”NUCuisine”), not NU, decides the menus. So, if all this chicken was a gaffe, I’m not sure NU race relations are to blame.
2. Besides, I’m pretty sure there’s fried chicken patties at lunch and dinner at every cafeteria, every day of the week.
3. If there were more fried chicken on MLK Day than those standard patties, it’s probably coincidental, as you state. Maybe you’re right, and someone didn’t realize they were ordering a lot of chicken to be fried on MLK Day. If fried chicken is a black food (and I don’t think it is), what’s the problem with eating it? And what should we eat instead, white people’s food?
One more thing to think about: I eat a lot of chicken patties (this is true, by the way). I especially like the ones Luis makes at lunch at Hinman (and he’s Latino). Am I racist? Is Luis racist for serving me lots of chicken patties? On which days of the week should I eat my chicken patties so as to be most tolerant of minorities?
Just giving you a hard time, Bakes. Feel free to send it right back my way.
David S.
January 18, 2007 at 12:50 am
After reading this exposé, a deep despair has settled upon my countenance. Deep within the EVIL BOWELS OF THE NORTHWESTERN ADMINISTRATIVE MACHINE someone chose fried chicken for mlk day. Thank you Matt Baker, for your muckraking and sharp eye for societal injustice has truly opened my eyes. As a white person, I now realize that every time I went to the cafeteria to be served by black employees, I was in fact reinforcing “the racist notion of subservient blacks working for the white elites.” LET US ABOLISH FRIED CHICKEN. LET US BRING JUSTICE TO THIS COLD WORLD. King was rolling in his grave as I sat smugly at the dinner table this past Monday, feasting upon oppression. Surely there was no other story or example of racial inequality more pertinent to his legacy that could have been reported this past Monday.
T
January 19, 2007 at 4:46 am
THIS IS AN OUTRAGE. HOW DARE WE ENJOY SOMETHING DELICIOUS THAT IS BELEIVED TO BE RACIST. I CANNOT BELIEVE PEOPLE, MAKING DELICIOUS CUISINE THAT HAPPENS TO BE A BIG TRADITION IN THE SOUTH, BECAUSE AS EVERYONE KNOWS, ALL BLACKS WERE SLAVES IN THE SOUTH AT SOME POINT AND ALWAYS ATE FRIED CHICKEN AND WATERMELON, AND TAPDANCED AND SHINED SHOES WHEN THEY WERE FREED.
Seirously people, grow the fuck up. Its food.
Stephen Sullivan
January 25, 2008 at 12:27 pm
My predominately white high school definitely served fried chicken and collard greens on MLK day my senior year. People cried out about it being racist, but I just thought it was delicious.
Megan
January 25, 2008 at 8:03 pm
I’m quite sure that the most damaging thing to come out of this past MLK day at Northwestern was this article.
Daniel Hegeman
March 17, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Who the hell DOESN’T like fried chicken?
Jeremy
March 18, 2008 at 1:55 am
Holy shit, fried chicken and watermelon? I can’t believe I didn’t find this gem before so that I could feel the pain of the greatest racial indecency known to man. My heart bleeds so profoundly. I bet KFC must be so incredibly racist for serving friend chicken on MLK day as well. They should probably close down every year on MLK day to observe the racial undertones of their entire business model. I mean, my god, IS THERE NO MERCY OR HUMANITY LEFT THAT FRIED CHICKEN AND MELON ARE REPRESENTATIONS OF OPPRESSION? I’m so distressed by this that I might just become a vegetarian.
Phallus
March 19, 2008 at 3:58 am
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VakkawAffiree
April 19, 2008 at 10:52 am