A Friggin' American

Man, this is stupid. Really, really stupid.

Conde Nast, the publishing company responsible for GQ, Vanity Fair and other glossy, thick publications favored by wealthy old people and dental offices, has an International Cafeteria at their Headquarters. Each week, they feature dishes inspired by a different world cuisine.

And on February 15th, the selected world cuisine was...African-American. You know, soul food. It sounds like it was pretty good, even to a whiteboy like myself - Jamaican beef patties, shrimp jambalaya, rice, okra, corn, black-eyed pea stew, deviled eggs and biscuits. Well, okay, I've never had black-eyed pea stew, and I hate the band that's stolen the dishes name, but I'd give it a try.

The food itself isn't the newsworthy thing, though. It's the protests that followed. It seems black employees were offended by the implication that they're "international." I mean, clearly, black people in America are Americans. It's right there after the hyphen: African-American.

I somehow doubt Conde Nast or their caterering company, Restaurant Associates, even thought about the semantic ramifications of their menu items. They were probably hard-pressed to keep coming up with international cuisines to feature. I mean, most African countries themselves are out - who knows what they eat in Burkina Faso? And people get sick of Indian pretty quickly.

I think this probably wouldn't be a big deal, if there wasn't already concern about the lack of black executives at Conde Nast. That's what got Al Sharpton involved, and once he throws his opinion out, it moves from "incident" right on to "controversy." Here's what The Rev had to say:

"If you look at the makeup of Condé Nast and its magazines, and the number of blacks in their corporate structure, there are none in the top echelon. [It] is symbolic of their corporate view that we are not part of American culture. Their attitude is 'Let them eat soul food!'"

Um, okay. I think Al's probably just upset he missed the buffet. "They had shrimp jambalaya and no one informed me? Racist bastards!"

I don't propose to know whether Conde Nast has racist hiring practices or not. I just think it's interesting to see people get so upset over the use of language. If the cafeteria featured a variety of so-called "cultural dishes," no one would have grounds for argument - Southern soul food cooking is certainly the product of a specific culture. But just because the word says "international" instead, you've got national news.