Everyone remember Foezzy Zoeller? In April of 1997, a young lecher and sex addict with a penchant for putting a ball in a hole...let me rephrase...a young golfer with a partial African-American heritage was tearing up the PGA by the name of Tiger Woods. Mr. Woods had just won the Masters, a huge accomplishment for any golfer and one of the "Masters" tournaments. The winner hosts the dinner the next year and chooses the menu as the former winners attend. Fuzzy, well known as the jokester on the tour, said something along the lines of I hope the "little boy" (Fuzzy was 45 versus the 21 year old Woods) doesn't order fried chicken and collard greens for the dinner. Tiger Woods accepted his apology, but Fuzzy effectively dissapeared that year. I don't remember ever hearing from him again.
Enter the modern era. NBC, the television company so far up President Obama's ass you can see their logo on his uvula, had this cafeteria sign posted to celebrate black history month. I wonder if Chris Matthews forgot he was eating black folks' food in the cafeteria for the lunch hour. Maybe he just figured the meal was post-racial.
Jokes aside, I actually think both the Fuzzy Zoeller comment and the menu are fine, though perhaps in bad taste given the context. Black culture in the U.S. is inexorably tied to Southern culture and vice-versa in the area of cuisine. That menu is available downstairs at the Poydras Center in downtown New Orleans at Dizzy's, a popular lunch stop for businessmen of all backgrounds. Be careful to recognize real racism. It comes in two forms. One side is the unreasoning hatred, the Aryans and the KKK and Malcolm X and Black Panthers. The second is more subtle, the reasoning pity of those who want to represent you because you can't take care of yourself. The Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton and liberals (Democrat and Republican alike) who tell you how much they respect you so they are going to make sure the government cares for you because you can't do it.
Personally, I'd like everything on the menu and, sad to say, I haven't tried the greens, but let's rock.
Oh, and if you can find jalapeno cornbread, both Bobby Flay and Emeril use it as signature dishes, get it, freeking awesome.
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