Preface - my post is not on the topic of whether "thug" refers to black people or not. That debate really has nothing to do with what I'm talking about here - what I feel is the pointlessness of being offended.
When white people are caught using language that perpetuates harmful stereotypes, especially when they're using it to make a buck, they need to be held accountable for it. That goes even if the authors of Thug Kitchen didn't realize the significance of what they were doing, and even if their white readers don't realize it either. People need to be educated about how what they say or write can carry racist or otherwise hurtful connotations even if they don't intend or realize it. As far as I see it, this can only improve discourse of all kinds.
On it's face, the sentiment seems good. But we could spend the rest of our internet lives spreading this so-called education for one cause-celebre at a time with little real effect besides giving ourselves a "fighting for justice" feeling of self importance. The problem I have with it isn't that it exists, but that it seems to be the
only discourse. An "I love this thing" thread isn't discourse. A "tell me your stories with this theme" thread isn't discourse. A "this happened to me today" thread won't have discourse. News isn't discourse. Besides the occasional domestic/world politics or economics thread, it seems to me that there is very little discourse outside of "is this offensive?" threads. I just looked at the threads on the first page of the OT and found only one that doesn't fit into my criteria, the thread about whether the Flash could kill everyone on earth.
I'm sick of endless debates over what words and concepts are offensive. Watch any film and you can easily find something to pick apart. Go listen to any standup comedian, you could pick apart every joke and find something to be offended about. Listen to Carlin, Chris Rock, Pryor, the best standups of all time, and you'll find plenty to pick apart. Is it really worth it to do that, though? Like the #notall____s hashtag meme, it's a childish form of debate to have, usually starting with "is ___ saying that all ___s are like/do ____?" I just think it's a waste of the collective intelligence of GAF and others on the internet to get stuck in the same rehashed discussions over what things are offensive or what possibly offensive things are being implied. I suppose I have to consider that these conversations simply aren't for me anymore, as I no longer get any education out of them. But what other debates can I read on GAF?
What Maddox does and what these two do is not even comparable. The styles do not mesh/blend at all.
These are not similar voices. There are similarities in that profanity is used, but the voice is not interchangeable.
Alright, maybe Maddox was a stretch, though I could probably cherry-pick a few sentences from his articles that sound close to Thug Kitchen. Maddox criticises while TK hypes up stuff, so they do have a different focus. I will stand by the Onion writing parody in this style, and add Cracked. None of these use ebonics like TK though, as detailed in some posts before this one.
They mix in a lot of ebonics.
I remember when the site first launched.. it was almost ALL ebonics.
Find a recipe from 2012 and you are more likely to see it.
Examples:
http://www.thugkitchen.com/agua_fresca
http://www.thugkitchen.com/healthy_pet_food
They still do it but have toned it down a lot.
However I remember this site when it first launched.. it was patently obvious at that time it was an attempt to conjur up images of an African American chef.
I don't recall Maddox ever saying "Son", or "My Jam".. or "Come correct".. or "elevate your game".. nobody owns these words, but they to me were and continue to be clear attempts to sound like someone using ebonics.
Yeah, I only looked at Thug Kitchen's front page recipes and the quotes from the article, which didn't convince me. Your examples are more convincing. With this new information, I'll say that yes, they're straddling the line of taste and tastelessness that could make some uncomfortable. Regarding some email responses posted elsewhere, I don't think it's fair to criticize TK for something you have to find an archive of to read. Those letters are way worse than anything accessible on the site now. If it's no longer accessible, it's because the writers recognize that it went too far.
That they're white doesn't bother me, though. Should it? That seems to be the starting point of the OP's article, that the authors are white. If they were black, would Thug Kitchen be fine? Any person that could create a platform like TK has knows that "son," "my jam" etc are flavor words. Practically no one writing on the web legitimately talks the way TK recipes read, so it is a conscious decision regardless of race. So then it would be passed off as harmless parody? The implications and possibilities for being offended would seem to be the same to me. Honestly, I think the discussion here is already more energy than it deserves.
Currently debating if I'm going to get banned for this post. Does my legitimately held opinion written in good faith count as concern trolling right now? Am I making light of racism by not clearly saying that I think the site is racist? I'm getting some deja vu right now. Well, hopefully I'll still be here in an hour.
