Anonymous asked:

Um I don't understand... How is putting swear words throughout a cookbook violating black people and promoting racism ????

To start with, it’s called ‘Thug Kitchen’. “Thug” is shorthand for black male; regardless of how strictly you might try to adhere to respectability politics (i.e. cultivating an image for yourself that lets white people know you’re not like those black people), if you’re black and male you’re still seen as a thug who’s guilty of something a la Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, etc. (Here’s an article about the racist use of the word “thug” throughout the Trayvon Martin trial.)

On no planet can these white yuppies use the word “thug” without racial implications or realistically deny that those implications are intentional. There’s a reason why they were anonymous until the release of their cookbook.

Second, it’s not just swear words, they use African American Vernacular English (AAVE, or “ebonics”) and make the conscious decision to infuse it with vulgar language, which is, by the way, racist since AAVE is not innately vulgar. That’s just their interpretation of what it means to be a “thug”. AAVE is a dialect like any other, using it does not reflect any aspect of your personhood, your intelligence, your class, your education, etc, all it means is that you grew up Black in America, or that your language is influenced by Black people you grew up with.

“All up in”, “Ain’t nobody got time for that”, etc are examples of AAVE. If you read an interview with these people you’ll notice they don’t speak in AAVE naturally (some non-black folks grow up with AAVE; that is not the case here). They’re just white people who swear a lot. They could have created their corny brand around that vulgarity alone but the addition of AAVE and the “thug” archetype are exploitative and RACIST. The language they’re using is the joke. When black people make jokes that involve AAVE, the language is just the mode of delivery. Everything about this is a mockery and it’s embarrassing, I hope the realization that these people are making money off this minstrel show inspires a serious backlash.