LOL’d: Texas restaurant under fire for offering up a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day special consisting of chicken, waffles and watermelon
Honestly, I don’t really care when people make the frantic claims that they’re not racist when they’ve done something that can be construed as being racist. In the case of this lady out in the middle of the sticks in Azle, Texas, I’d probably chalk her up as being someone who probably isn’t racist, but simply ignorant about black people in general.
The fact that she didn’t seem to realize that offering up chicken and waffles with a side of watermelon was about as easy as a layup to construe as being racist seems to indicate more ignorance rather than malice; unless she’s playing us all as fools, is very much aware, very much racist, and understands that a little bit of a racial fire all it takes to weather out a storm on the internet, but flourish in business from all the free advertising that bad press, which is still press, provides them, on the news.
At this point, most stories like this have to be met with some degree of skepticism, because of the notion that all press is good press. Sure, a black person may never go to this café, and be quick to state such intentions on the internet, but there are probably two white people who think it’s hilarious and/or potentially delicious and/or also agree with a little bit of racism and would gladly patron this café in their stead. The difference is that they’re not going to mention it on the internet. I imagine this happens quite often with any restaurant that stirs up a little bit of controversy over the internet, and I’m curious to see what kind of aftermath occurs when they get any sort of free advertising.
Race aside, chicken and waffles are a delicious combination. I’m kind of meh on watermelon, and have always been such, so that’s not necessarily a draw for me. The funny thing is that of all items on the menu, it seems to be the watermelon that raises the ire of others, based on the symbolism of it being food of laziness and representing the demeaning of blacks.
This almost makes me want to eat watermelon every time a black hypocrite takes cheap shots at Asians while simultaneously crying discrimination.
What’s even more ironic, and additionally hilarious to me is that when looking for an accompanying image for this post, and simply querying “chicken waffles watermelon” brings up a wide variety of images, clearly from a vast variety of sources, of restaurants and chefs who have photographed their own attempts to plate chicken, waffles and watermelon together. Clearly the racism/ignorance isn’t limited to just one tiny café in Texas, but whatever; another slow news day, another witch hunt for racist stories to blow up the internet.
