{shrug} it's your site and you can be intentionally obtuse if you wish, but certainly, given the context, it was clearly a racial charged comment.
Of course, there was a racial component to it; but then, you'd have a hard time arguing that there isn't a racial component to Juneteenth, and that's what the note was in reference to. I'd say that Juneteenth is more racially charged than fried chicken, since I'd guess that roughly the same percentage of white people eat fried chicken as black people. If you're going to be overly sensitive about race, you've got to acknowledge the existence of race. Otherwise, it's similar to what they're doing to the feminist movement. On the one hand, we're supposed to believe that men and women are equal and, in fact, it's impossible even to define "woman" as a term without being canceled. On the other, we're supposed to give special rights to women. I know that liberals live in this kind of world, but the logic is sadly lacking. For that matter, I really don't think black people like fried chicken or watermelon any more than white people do, although I'm surprised that anyone likes collard greens. We certainly ate enough fried chicken and watermelon where I grew up, and there were no black people in my hometown. That was long before I was made aware that only racists are aware of the existence of these foods.
We love fried chicken, but definitely not collard greens. Waffle House has grits, which is more like cream of rice, but we never order it. An article online today, explains that the daughter of the owner wrote the message as more of a light-hearted joke than anything else. She stated that she wouldn't do anything to hurt her mother's business and was really shocked at all of the controversy involved in what she wrote. She is totally apologizing and hopes that her apologizing will help.
And, it's not just the city in Maine that is online for a controversial comment, here is one from Redmond, Oregon sausage shop: Sausage shop that slammed Juneteenth as sign of ‘moral decay’ faces backlash in Oregon (msn.com)
I order it at Cracker Barrel. Does that mean I'm a bigot or is it proof that I'm not a bigot? Does the fact that I'm not triggered by the use of the word "cracker" in the restaurant's name mean anything?
I don't know, Ken, but declaring Juneteenth a Federal Holiday sure has raised some cane in places of the U.S. Guess some folks agree with what it's about, while others totally disagree. I just don't know. We now have to watch what we eat and what we say, whether what we say is voiced or printed??
I give a rats ass about Juneteenth about as much as I do about Cinco de Mayo . Not being racist's jut think unnecessary to celebrate everything . I am more upset about the fact the Navy has instructed there people to learn the proper pronouns and use them or lose their job. What a crack of crap. The military daughter we have says its no big deal and will never happen. She thinks they over react to most things and enforce very little.
Here's an update on this event https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/m...versial-juneteenth-sign/ar-AAYL2fF?li=BBnbfcL A brief recap of the critical part: Progressive and Allstate, two of the nation's largest insurance carriers, told NEWS CENTER Maine on Wednesday that they are terminating their relationships with Harry E. Reed Insurance Co.
Millinocket Insurance Company, a competitor of Reed Insurance, is getting hate messages on their voicemail, as well as bad reviews from people who couldn't even tell you where Millinocket is located, as is a Reed Insurance Company in Damariscotta, on the other side of the state, as well as another one in California. Perhaps this will work out for Reed, because if everyone is a racist, then racism has no meaning, and the kinds of people who get caught up in cancel culture aren't capable of thinking anything through. If common sense came naturally to them, they wouldn't get involved.
Just thought I circle back to this thread. Lots of talk about who likes fried chicken and watermelon, evil Democrats, Political Correctness, Cancel culture (whatever that is) but the fact is that a vast majority of Americans see the sign as racist and inappropriate. The owner who posted that sign may have thought they were been funny, but it clearly isn't. Now they are paying a steep price for their mistake, and I have zero sympathy for them.
Or who they must do business with ..... as in the case of the baker and the photographer that refused to provide their service/product to the queer marriages.
Things that we all knew were jokes, and were clearly meant to be funny, are not taken that way in this day and age. I grew up about 30 miles from the Canadian border in north Idaho, and we had fried chicken and watermelon on summer holidays, and would never have taken any offense if someone teased us about it. Now days, if a man decides that he is going to be a woman, he can dress and act like one (or his perception of what a woman is) and no one laughs at him, and we are supposed to call him “she’ and ‘her’, and act like it was real and not pretend. Otherwise people are offended. Some people find almost anything offensive, and when they make a big fuss about it, then we are all told that it IS offensive. We live in the days of the “Emperor Who Had No Clothes”, and march along complimenting him on the beautiful new outfit.
"I was only joking", when something is written or said that is offensive to some. They know what they wrote or said, but to try to get out of trouble with the law, that is what they will say.
There’s another small slant to the sign that might be missed by most. Maine entered into the union in March of 1820 as a FREE state and as such, Juneteenth has little or no value which might be why the “whatever” part of the sign was written. To be factual, black people in Maine were free 43 years before the Emancipation Proclamation and some 50+ years before the Texas emancipation. So, to the fried chicken and collards part, I’ve worked with and befriended black people all my life and not once have I thought that anyone was offended by joking around with them about fried chicken or watermelon or grits or “whatever”. As a matter of interest, the probability that there is at least one Soul Food restaurant in Millenocket is extremely high which adds to the distinction of cultural culinary differences between the races and I’m sure that no one is offended. Now, given that Millinocket is only .8% black and it’s a relatively small town and everyone probably knows everyone, referencing fried chicken and collards might have been in poor taste but it might not have been intended as a slur but as a jab at the insignificance of Juneteenth in that town.