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WTF?!?!
So, we have a holiday party every year at work. It's always pot luck. Each department takes turns being the ones in charge. Well, the guy who has been put in charge of planning for this year's department must not have a lot going on, b/c he's already planning. He said he wants to mix things up this year, and was thinking of having people bring dishes from their "native areas." Here are my thoughts:
1. There are 4 people from other countries (1 from japan; 1 from thailand; 2 from Africa). That's about it.
2. This might just be the situation for where i'm working, but other than the 4 people above, most of us here are "mutts" and are blended. If you want people to bring a dish from their "native area" it might discourage people to bring anything. (If this happens, I'm going to bring beer and cheese and say my native area is wisconsin!)
This person (who happens to be 1 of 3 african american people in the office. The other 2 are mentioned in #1), says "yeah, I think it would be a cool idea. I think I'll bring chicken and waffles." The person he said this too got a confused look and said "I don't get it." And he said "well, chicken and waffles are are southern thing."
Um, this guy is from CHICAGO!!!!!! That's about 3 hours south of here!!
Thoughts? I just thought it was very odd and seemed to be following stereotypical thoughts of some people about that race. I mean, I would think that if someone said to him "Oh, I assumed you would bring something like chicken and waffles" then he would be racially offended......
Re: WTF?!?!
While it does seem a little early to be planning a holiday party... It sounds like the guy probably had good intentions when he suggested "native foods". To me that would simply mean something traditional from where I am from or from somewhere my family is from. I live in RI now so if someone told me to bring something "native" I would either bring something found in upstate NY (hello fries and brown gravy; or buffalo wings - western NY hollar....) or something German which is where my Gram is from. I wouldn't necessarily think I needed to be from another country to bring something "native".
The guy thinking Chicken and Waffles might just have a Gram or something from the south and that's what he thinks when he hears "native food". If someone had suggested to him to bring something "southern" that might be a little stereotypical, but it a) doesn't sound like that happened and b) he wants to bring something traditionally southern.
That's just my opinion, and I could always be completely wrong.
Moleson - does this mean you'll bring cheese curds?
The guy planning this may have good intentions but I don't like the idea of that theme. Ethnic, WTF is that?
IUI #1 10/12/11 (Bravelle + HCG + Prometrium & acupuncture) = 10/26 BFP! Beta #1=250, Beta #2= 615. 1st u/s 11/8.
I said i'll bring cheese and beer. :-)
Yeah, i think he had good intentions, and maybe like someone else said the whole chicken and waffles southern thing is something that his family used to do or something. but it just seemed a little odd.......
It seemed a little odd, but when I thought about how the idea would work in my workplace it kinda made sense. We would have Mexican, Italian, Russian and Portugese food. If there is not much diversity that it kinda doesn't come together, just my opinion.
Hahah...love the idea of beer and cheese. Aged Wisconsin Cheddar?
I am lol'ing at the whole thing, and the guy saying he'll bring chicken and waffles. Seriously, lol. And yes, it's so the kind of thing that if someone else asked if he was going to bring that, it'd be offensive. Ha!
We had a big Black History Month event I guess 2 years ago, and one of the managers made collard greens. I overheard someone ask him how he learned to make it, since he's from Iran. He was like, yes, I'm Persian, but my mother is African American, and she taught me, and blah blah blah.
Exactly!!! I almost feel like he's "playing" into the stereotype. If he wants to go southern there's lots of other foods I could think of that don't play into the racial stereotypes. Plus, I get the whole southern food thing. BUT he and his family are from chicago!! That's not exactly "southern" USA. But like someone else said, maybe it's something his grandma used to make or something and it makes him think of his family.
When I was in college, I was shocked to find out that many people at my school thought they were 'colored greens'.
Around Thanksgiving I said something about them, and someone seriously said that I was pronouncing it wrong. It took a lot of shocked discussion to set the record straight on that one.
To make it even more awkward, I was talking about my aunt making them, and someone said, "I didn't know white people made colored greens". I had to explain that while my aunt is actually black, yes, white people can make COLLARD greens.
Okay, I'm dead. It was nice knowing you guys.