School District Apologizes for MLK Lunch Menu 0comments
published in 2010-01-13 21:15:00
quote 1 floor
Filed under: In The News EducationThe academy district called the menu which included fried chicken and collard greens "highly insensitive." Credit: Getty ImagesThe school luncheon menu for Jan. ...
Filed under: In The News Education
The academy district called the menu which included fried chicken and collard greens "highly insensitive." Credit: Getty Images
The school luncheon menu for Jan. 15 read "In Honor of M.L. King." But the food featured that day -- "Southern Style" chicken collard greens sweet potatoes and peach crisp -- has officials from Denver Public Schools apologizing.
"The plan to serve a Southern-style meal in recognition of Martin Luther King Day was well intentioned except highly insensitive in light of certain hurtful cultural stereotypes serene harbored in parts of our society" a message on the disctrict's Web site states.
"Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the greatest leaders and civil rights heroes in our country's history" the DPS site continues. "We are working with all of our schools to ensure that our students appreciate the enduring legacy of Dr. King's job and life and the extraordinary importance of his message in our community today."
The Denver Post reports that Jennifer Holladay the mother of a Denver kindergartner and past director of Teaching Tolerance says she left messages with DPS food service to complain about the menu when she first saw it in December but never heard back.
"It's a teachable moment for DPS and for people along the country" Holladay who is white and whose husband is black tells the Post. "These caricatures can slip in without any malicious intent."
School board president Nate Easley Jr. tells the newspaper he's more concerned with other issues facing students.
"I don't think people woke up in the morning and said how can we offend people" he tells the Post. "As a black man the things that offend me more is how we are doing with kids in the district. ... If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was living today I think he would be more concerned about our outcomes of our students than what they are eating to honor him."
Denver Post columnist Bill Johnson writes that the menu selection is "a horribly illiterate stereotype."
"Holladay marvels that no one from the writer to the person who typed it to the teacher who gave the menu to her daughter said anything" Johnson writes. "... We need to do better by our children [Holladay] said. The school district should be held to report should seem on this like a teachable moment for its classrooms."
"And what could be a better time she said to teach about racial sterotyping? 'Now that' Holladay said 'would be honoring Dr. King.' "
Do you think the Denver Public School District should be held accountable for the menu? Or is this a case of political correctness gone as well far?
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