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[Deleted member 47027]

http://www.vice.com/read/thug-kitch...digital-blackface-909?utm_source=vicetumblrus

Earlier this week, a hard-hitting investigation by Epicurious revealed that the food blog (and upcoming cookbook) Thug Kitchen—a brand that got popular by writing recipes in a tone reminiscent of African American Vernacular English—is run by two WASPy white people from California, Michelle Davis and Matt Holloway, whom Epicurious refers to as “masterminds.”

For the uninitiated, Thug Kitchen’s recipes are sold with phrases like “Don’t fuck around with some sorry-ass ten-dollar takeout,” and “This holiday season bake a batch of these spiced sons of bitches.” The tone has led many people to deride the "Thugs," as Davis and Holloway wish to be called, as “deceptive” and “a lot like the latest iteration of nouveau blackface.” Others criticized the title of Thug Kitchen for its use of the word thug, something that has been deemed a code word—that is, a “polite way to say ‘nigger’ in mixed company.”

The backlash to the revelation that Thug Kitchen is written by white people has inspired a backlash of its own. Detractors of Davis and Holloway’s critics point out that automatically associating the word thug with black men is itself racist. But there’s no denying that the word has historically been used as a weapon to condemn people of color.

As many have pointed out, last year, when 26-year-old Stanford grad and Compton native Richard Sherman played the game of a lifetime and served an integral role in sending the Seattle Seahawks into the Super Bowl, he gave an impassioned post-game speech in which he called out his opponents' perceived slights against him. He didn't even curse, but he was immediately labeled a thug, presumably because his skin color and dreadlocks fit the description of what people typically associate with that word.

More recently, I wrote about how the New York Post smeared storied New York City police officer, former drug dealer, and current community advocate Corey Pegues, describing him as a “thug cop” on the cover of their paper after he appeared on the Combat Jack Show and shared the story of how he transitioned from a victim of the trap to becoming an executive in the world’s largest police force.

One thing is clear: For the upwardly mobile white Angelinos behind Thug Kitchen, the word thug is ironic and funny, a bit of culturally exploratory fun. But for men like Sherman and Pegues, it's a putdown meant to demonize and dehumanize.

You don’t have to look very hard to find white and non-black people profiting off of what could traditionally be deemed black culture. Urban Outfitters sells a book called Understand Rap, written by William Buckholz, a white freelance writer from Seattle, who “demystifies” rap by explaining “confusing rap lyrics” so that “you and your grandma can understand.”

More infamously, the coder frat bros behind Rap Genius received a $15 million infusion in their company from angel investor Andreessen Horowitz. But they stole a large bounty of their lyrics from an original hip-hop lyrics website and profit from the works of primarily African American artists. Meanwhile, their private internal chatroom was a mess of cultural insensitivity and crude racial jokes.

Whether or not Holloway and Davis would have received a book deal if they were black is up for debate, but what isn’t is the way the word thug has been used to insult black men and women in the United States.

With that in mind, one would like to assume that the people behind a company that sells a $20 T-shirt emblazoned with the expression “Know Your Roots"—with its link to the history of slavery and black genealogy (not to mention the seminal book and TV series Roots)—might be cognizant of the blatant racial coding present in their marketing. Either they knowingly benefitted from a form of digital blackface, or they are racially tone-deaf. Neither explanation should absolve Holloway and Davis from criticism and outright commercial rejection.

After initially agreeing to speak with me for this story, the "Thugs” declined to comment for this piece.

What's your take on this?

 

[HerbertFish]

Seems like a reach, or the article didn't do a good job.

 

[Angelus Errare]

Never heard of Thug Kitchen, but I automatically assume anything like that is ran by some really WASPy mofos right off the bat.

“polite way to say ‘nigger’ in mixed company.”

It really is.

He didn't even curse, but he was immediately labeled a thug, presumably because his skin color and dreadlocks fit the description of what people typically associate with that word.

No need to presume, it's exactly the reason.

 

[Anton Sugar]

Agreed 100%. When I first heard of "Thug Kitchen", I thought "please don't be white please don't be white please don't be white "

 

[Faiz]

I had no idea people felt like "thug" was a code word. I've always believed, and only seen it used, in reference to mode of dress and behavior. Hmm.

 

[ISOM]

I had no idea people felt like "thug" was a code word. I've always believed, and only seen it used, in reference to mode of dress and behavior. Hmm.

Did you not hear or remember the controversy regarding nfl player richard sherman? He even addressed the topic.

 

[radios shipping overview]

More tone-deaf white people trying to make a buck, just like with that SketchFactor app.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

I enjoy thug kitchen, but this article seems to be reaching a bit. They don't seem to mention the other side of the word thug, the glorification of it in hip hop.

I don't really know how to feel here. The site is funny though.

 

[Faiz]

Did you not hear or remember the controversy regarding nfl player richard sherman? He even addressed the topic.

Nope. It's entirely new to me.

 

[Grym]

hmmm...I've actually followed thug kitchen for awhile now.

I guess I never assumed the recipes were written using racial speech...I just thought they were unique recipes and funny because they were vulgar and swore a lot (which is obviously very different than any other recipes you read.

But I never really thought about it or looked at it closely...so maybe the language is more race-based than I thought? I dunno. I never got that impression myself...

EDIT - I think this is the first recipe I saw which made me start watching them:

GARBANZO BEANS. CHICKPEAS. WHATEVERTHEFUCK YOU WANT TO CALL THEM. These tiny bastards are filled to the brim with protein, fiber, iron, folate, B-6, magnesium, and all kinds of other boss nutritious shit that your body needs on the daily. If you’re short on time or feeling lazy you can buy them already cooked in a can. They’re less than a fucking dollar. Try them as a sandwich filling, blended up to make hummus, or roasted and wrapped into a burrito. I mean shit, you can use this recipe as a dip or toss it on top of salad. Chickpeas are versatile as fuck.

CHICKPEA PESTO SANDWICH

Pesto:
1 ¼ cup torn, packed basil leaves
1/3 cup slivered or sliced almonds
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon lemon zest
½ teaspoon salt
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas (or one 15 ounce can)
1 carrot

Put all the ingredients for the pesto in a food processor and blend until smooth-ish. No food processor? Chill the fuck out. Just put the almonds in a plastic bag and smash them until they are tiny and chop the rest of that shit up super small too. Mix all of it together with a fork until it looks like a paste.

Mash up the chickpeas in a medium bowl so that they kind of look like a paste but some chunks of bean are all good. Grate the carrot into the bowl and mix that shit together with the chickpea paste. Add about a ⅓ cup of the pesto and stir until everything is coated then taste. Maybe you like more pesto than me, I don’t fucking know. Add some more until your ass is happy with it. Grab some of your favorite sammie ingredients and add SANDWICH ARTIST to your fucking resume.

Makes 3 legit sandwiches

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

I had no idea people felt like "thug" was a code word. I've always believed, and only seen it used, in reference to mode of dress and behavior. Hmm.

My parents said it all the time as an obvious codeword, so I've known from when I was a young teenager that most white people saying it don't have the best thoughts behind it.

 

[joelseph]

Good read, thanks for sharing.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

I had no idea people felt like "thug" was a code word. I've always believed, and only seen it used, in reference to mode of dress and behavior. Hmm.

Nah, the article specifically calls out the media awareness surrounding the word's general use as code thanks to the Richard Sherman backlash.

I mean, people realized it was a code before that, but it was the Sherman controversy that really brought it to a lot of people's attention.

But I never really thought about it or looked at it closely...so maybe the language is more race-based than I thought? I dunno. I never got that impression myself...

By using the term "Thug" and adopting that specifically profane voice, they absolutely want a specific mental image to pop up in your head - that voice and image, juxtaposed with their recipe, is the entire point of the joke.

Imagine if M.O.P. rapped about beet salad. That's the whole gag.

 

[Black Republican]

I had no idea people felt like "thug" was a code word. I've always believed, and only seen it used, in reference to mode of dress and behavior. Hmm.

Sadly no longer

 

[HerbertFish]

hmmm...I've actually followed thug kitchen for awhile now.

I guess I never assumed the recipes were written using racial speech...I just thought they were unique recipes and funny because they were vulgar and swore a lot (which is obviously very different than any other recipes you read.

But I never really thought about it or looked at it closely...so maybe the language is more race-based than I thought? I dunno. I never got that impression myself...

The two examples of the writing they used in the article don't seem to be racially - based at all. So you could definitely be right, or the author chose some horrible examples to prove his point

 

[Fried Food]

Great, so now it seems the word "thug" has been ruined as well.

I'm more offended that the lingo used by these people is immediately linked to African Americans. That's the really sad part.

 

[The Lamonster]

Not really buying this viewpoint. Thug does not equal urban black person.

This is the type of shit I think about when I hear "thug:"

 

[Allez Phill]

Hmm, should I make a YouTube show called Redneck Kitchen and speak like an uneducated hill billy?

Spoiler

Black people can be rednecks too, right?

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Thug Kitchen always made me a bit uncomfortable. In these situations satire treads a fine line between making fun of the people who apply a stereotype, and making fun of the people to whom it is generally applied. The latter is assumed when the satirists aren't the former, because there's a pretty clear lack of empathy present in their humour.

 

[Deleted member 47027]

Hmm, should I make a YouTube show called Redneck Kitchen and speak like an uneducated hill billy?

Spoiler

Black people can be rednecks too, right?

Absolutely. And people will eat it up.

 

[Angelus Errare]

I mean really people, when was the last time a white trouble maker was called a "thug".

A white person is called a "thug" about as much as they're called "nigger". Shit was so obvious that it was the codeword for "nigger" you had to have your head buried in the sand to not notice.

 

[ChawlieTheFair]

Not too sure on thug being a "polite way to say nigger". Unless I'm ignorant of it's historical origin, thug always just mean't shady/burly/crony guys. In the modern culture it's sort of become more associated with rap/gangsta stuff I guess. That being said, the examples used in the article seemed more southern than thug/black.

IDK, Key and Peele's most popular sketch also plays off black stereotypes, didn't hear them get flak for it.

I mean really people, when was the last time a white trouble maker was called a "thug".

A white person is called a "thug" about as much as they're called "nigger". Shit was so obvious that it was the codeword for "nigger" you had to have your head buried in the sand to not notice.

In my head I think of mobsters/mafia enforcers when I hear thug.

 

[timetokill]

Can I still like Thug Notes?

 

[JumpJeff84]

What's the deal with the Rap Genius controversy? I recently discovered that site, and I enjoy their podcast, where they interview legendary rappers about their lyrics.

 

[The Lamonster]

I mean really people, when was the last time a white trouble maker was called a "thug".

A white person is called a "thug" about as much as they're called "nigger". Shit was so obvious that it was the codeword for "nigger" you had to have your head buried in the sand to not notice.

It might be a regional thing, because in my world a thug can absolutely be a white person, or any race of person. These guys are most certainly thugs where I come from:

 

[DietRob]

From the trailer I watched for the cook book it seems like it could have been just as adequately be described as "Cursing Kitchen". Stupid and I agree that "thug" used by white people is indeed a code word for nigger.

 

[BeatResetsTheWorld]

It just never stops holding true. Non-black people's fascination with "acting black" is...well, as a black man, fascinating...

 

[Ikuu]

I mean really people, when was the last time a white trouble maker was called a "thug".

See it all the time.

 

[ItIsOkBro]

 

[The Lamonster]

Here's another non-black thug for you guys:

 

[Opiate]

My personal experience with the word "thug" comes almost exclusively from hip hop, where some rappers will self identify as "thugs." Can someone square that circle for me?

 

[richiek]

There was a thread on GAF about Thug Kitchen a year ago:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=548512&highlight=thug+kitchen

But seeing how the blog is written by two well to do white folks... yeah, that is a bit problematic

 

[DietRob]

I think it would have been more offensive if in combination with using the code word for nigger the book was also written in ebonics. But from what I've read it really just looks like overt use of profanities.

Could have called it the Sailor Cookbook (curse like a sailor) but that wouldn't have made headlines or waves like they are clearly intending to.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

See it all the time.

Do you have some online examples to link? I'm with Angelus in that I almost never see it referring to a white person by another white person.

 

[CassidyIzABeast]

So Auntie Fee is a thug then?

 

[PhantomHound]

When i hear thug the first image i get is of a mobster

 

[Deified Data]

I agree that calling it "Thug Kitchen" is in poor taste - the endless dog-whistlers in the world prevent us from appreciating the word in any other context at this point - but the words I saw used as examples here don't really strike me as being stereotypically "black". Saying "fuck", "sons of bitches", or appending "-ass" to everything has kind of entered the modern informal vernacular.

I'd call it something more like "Crass Kitchen" or "Trying Too Hard Kitchen".

 

[LouisaFerre]

When I hear thug I think of Lil B.

Really though, I'm not offended by stuff like this. I'm more just slightly annoyed, because it just doesn't strike me as being particularly funny or creative. It's just some dumb shit.

 

[dvdjamm]

Agreed 100%. When I first heard of "Thug Kitchen", I thought "please don't be white please don't be white please don't be white "

Dammit,they're white

 

[The Lamonster]

When i hear thug the first image i get is of a mobster

Yep. I think of henchmen, criminals and bullies. Not rappers or whatever.

 

[ChawlieTheFair]

When i hear thug the first image i get is of a mobster

Yep. I think of henchmen, criminals and bullies. Not rappers or whatever.

Said above, but same.

 

[captmorgan]

Do you have some online examples to link? I'm with Angelus in that I almost never see it referring to a white person by another white person.

Have you never watched a hockey game?

I was confused when I read thug kitchen, I`m Canadian so the only time I have heard the word thug was describing an "enforcer" in hockey.
When I read the title all I could picture was a hockey brute coming out with a cook book.

 

[Hari Seldon]

I associate thug with gangsterism, so either like Tony Soprano or the Crypts. If someone is acting like they are in a gang, then I consider them a thug. This shit is easy there is no need to make it more complicated.

 

[PhantomHound]

Yep. I think of henchmen, criminals and bullies. Not rappers or whatever.

I dont listen to rap, but didn't 80-90 rappers say things like "thug life" maybe that's why people think it's racial?

 

[Foggy]

Today I learned what WASP means. Is this a new thing or am I hopelessly out of touch?

Spoiler

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant

 

[shuri]

Do you have some online examples to link? I'm with Angelus in that I almost never see it referring to a white person by another white person.

I've seen it used for teenagers and sadly grown men of any color in my social circle who is embracing the hiphop lifestyle when it comes to music choices and clothing.

That whole 'thug' is a codeworld for 'black people' thing surprised me when I first read about it on neogaf. I had no idea people would use it for that.

In my social circles, it's used for wannabe gangsters and tough guys. Like "look at those thug-ass losers".. "Those two thug looking dudes came in here" "He got beaten up by two thugs"

 

[Hip Hop]

Didn't know "thug" was a negative word to put someone to shame.

It can identify anyone, not just based on race. At least around here it does.

We would call someone like that to jokinly point out that they are gang members or are "tough" back in high school.

 

[Dresden]

At least thugnotes will never lie to me.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

I associate thug with gangsterism, so either like Tony Soprano or the Crypts. If someone is acting like they are in a gang, then I consider them a thug. This shit is easy there is no need to make it more complicated.

We're not making it complicated, man. It happened in national news to Richard Sherman. Its use as a codeword is real.

I believe some of you who say you don't have that association with it as a codeword, especially those not in America, but from now on, notice how often it's applied mostly to black people.

 

[rtcn63]

Today I learned what WASP means. Is this a new thing or am I hopelessly out of touch?

Spoiler

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuWowsQA5QI