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[RedTurbo]

I'm certain you would be wrong and that's not because this isn't actually funny but because people criticize black comedians all the time for making fun of black people with no nuance and no overall message. Dave Chappelle, Key and Peele, Aaron Mcgruder, and even Chris Rock all faced criticism in that regard. Dave Chappelle famously quit his very popular highly rated show in part for this reason.

They may have faced criticism from other black entertainers in that regard, but it's not like Black people as a whole don't like what they make. A good majority of the US population generally loves these guys and are not running away from them. People too aren't condoning them in a meaningful way, nor are they generally saying that it's offensive either. Until it happens that everybody, most importantly black people in America, are actually doing something to stop these stereotypes and negative media portrayals from occurring I will change my mind.

People's reaction wouldn't be different at all

If a black person says the n-word it's OK even funny no matter what the situation is in spite of the history of the word. If a white person says the n-word it's the the end of their life, they're racists, and they owned slaves in the 1800s and they should know better because that word carries historical significance. Replace the two white people who made "thug kitchen" with two black people and the criticisms in this thread wouldn't exist.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Link to the first thread?

I need to know because of... reasons.

You are actually reading the thread you're participating in, right?

(of course you're not)

 

[Htown]

If a black person says the n-word it's OK even funny no matter what the situation is in spite of the history of the word. If a white person says the n-word it's the the end of their life, they're racists, and they owned slaves in the 1800s and they should know better because that word carries historical significance. Replace the two white people who made "thug kitchen" with two black people and the criticisms in this thread wouldn't exist.

You can set your watch by this shit

 

[You Are Viewtiful]

That doesn't even sound black to me? Sounds more working-class white.

 

[shuri]

Link to the first thread?

I need to know because of... reasons.

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

First thread: People discussing food and recipes. Not a single peep about racial prejudices
This thread: Outrage Olympics

 

[Surface of Me]

That doesn't even sound black to me? Sounds more working-class white.

Yeah, if they hadnt named it "Thug Kitchen" I dont think anyone would be batting an eye. I've seen this vernacular used before on the internet, as a joke, but never connected to black culture.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

This thread: Outrage Olympics

This thread:

people who don't read the thread before responding (because messageboards aren't a place where conversations happen, they're a place where you drive-by topics you don't like and barf something in the general direction of a thread and maybe someone will slip on it)

people who don't have personal experience with the topic being put forth

people upset at the idea of the topic in general

people who then try to dismiss the topic out of hand due to their lack of familiarity with the topic.

people who explain (repeatedly) how the topic is actually rooted in a verifiable reality that is easily observed.

people who either then leave the thread, or return to line three, except now they've decided that the people in line five are "outrage olympians,' even though the majority of the posts expressing any sort of outrage (itself a coded term meant to suggest the person engaged in the conversation are overemotional/faking their stance) belong to the people who simply refuse to believe there's any actual merit to not only the topic, but the specific example being cited in the topic.

There's a lot of knee-jerk dismissal and defensiveness regarding this topic on behalf of a ton of people who shouldn't be feeling as such considering they almost all tend to lead with the declaration that they're NOT the kind of person being discussed in the topic.

 

[PrivateWHudson]

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.”

Learn something new everyday. I just thought thug was just a way to say - People who talk like this:

“Don’t fuck around with some sorry-ass ten-dollar takeout,”

 

[Angelus Errare]

This thread:

people who don't read the thread before responding (because messageboards aren't a place where conversations happen, they're a place where you drive-by topics you don't like and barf something in the general direction of a thread and maybe someone will slip on it)

people who don't have personal experience with the topic being put forth

people upset at the idea of the topic in general

people who then try to dismiss the topic out of hand due to their lack of familiarity with the topic.

people who explain (repeatedly) how the topic is actually rooted in a verifiable reality that is easily observed.

people who either then leave the thread, or return to line three, except now they've decided that the people in line five are "outrage olympians,' even though the majority of the posts expressing any sort of outrage belong to the people who simply refuse to believe there's any actual merit to not only the topic, but the specific example being cited in the topic.

There's a lot of knee-jerk dismissal and defensiveness regarding this topic on behalf of a ton of people who shouldn't be feeling as such considering they almost all tend to lead with the declaration that they're NOT the kind of person being discussed in the topic.

Said it much better than I would have.

 

[freddy]

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

First thread: People discussing food and recipes. Not a single peep about racial prejudices
This thread: Outrage Olympics

Perhaps its the large community threads full of like minded people with similar opinions on certain topics that are having an increased effect on the tone of threads. Before an opinion would stand alone until someone chanced upon the thread who agreed but now it's possible for a thread to be linked back to a community thread or spoken about and have a multitude of people come in at the same time with the same narrative which steers the topic in a certain direction. With solidarity and numbers behind them, people become empowered to speak out more often. It could also be that I shouldn't have rolled that last 'cigarette', meaning I'd be asleep by now and not over thinking this.

 

[Tesseract]

thug to me was always used to describe recidivists

 

[Infinite]

They may have faced criticism from other black entertainers in that regard, but it's not like Black people as a whole don't like what they make. A good majority of the US population generally loves these guys and are not running away from them. People too aren't condoning them in a meaningful way, nor are they generally saying that it's offensive either. Until it happens that everybody, most importantly black people in America, are actually doing something to stop these stereotypes and negative media portrayals from occurring I will change my mind.


If a black person says the n-word it's OK even funny no matter what the situation is in spite of the history of the word. If a white person says the n-word it's the the end of their life, they're racists, and they owned slaves in the 1800s and they should know better because that word carries historical significance. Replace the two white people who made "thug kitchen" with two black people and the criticisms in this thread wouldn't exist.

Your opinion hinges on that fact that you don't see black people as individuals. Not worth it going down this road with you.

 

[sangreal]

Learn something new everyday. I just thought thug was just a way to say - People who talk like this:

“Don’t fuck around with some sorry-ass ten-dollar takeout,”

nobody talks like this

 

[PrivateWHudson]

nobody talks like this

Obviously it's a parody, mostly just the cursing. I like to curse as much as the next guy, but more than one expletive per sentence (unless you're really pissed off) feels thugish. Or maybe its the way the cursing is used as a modifier. I don't know how to explain it, but when I think of thug, I thing of someone like Jessie in Breaking Bad...Science Bitch! Where and how bitch is used feels thug like.

 

[RedTurbo]

Your opinion hinges on that fact that you don't see black people as individuals. Not worth it going down this road with you.

Well, you just seem to know me so well.

This thread really is the Outrage Olympics.

 

[Alienous]

Wait, thug is a synonym for black person?

Why wasn't I told?

 

[Bobby Roberts]

This thread really is the Outrage Olympics.

You win the bronze.

 

[Turin Turambar]

Hahahah

Aren't they the true racists for believing that only black people can swear a lot, curse and talk badly as a form of appearing "tough" or a bad guy? It's pretty fucking universal.
Do they really believe there are only black thugs in the world?

The ignorance is so big lol. There are entire countries out there where the typical "thugs" are mostly not black people, but of white race, or latinamerican or asian or whatever it's the country. Hell, most of the world except Africa, and USA. Typical North American naval gazing I suppose.

 

[strobogo]

Wtf how is "mayo is nasty" a black stereotype? Mayo IS fucking nasty.

 

[riotous]

Wtf how is "mayo is nasty" a black stereotype? Mayo IS fucking nasty.

It was a big joke in Undercover Brother; but I've seen other black comedians reference the concept.. and if you google it you'll find plenty of racists using the sterotype as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubV3t9_CwDc

It's not damming on it's own.. but you throw in the "Sons" and the "Yo'selfs" and the other ebonics and you also hate mayonaisse?

I don't think these people should be tarred and feathered.. I'm just arguing that it seems pretty apparent they WERE attempting, particularly early on, to be a "black stereotype" character.

They then muddled it into this "guy who says fuck a lot" character. For instance.. if you go on the WayBack machine you can find the word "Homie" or "Homey" being used quite a bit.. but use google's "site:ThugKitchen.com" and you'll find the word doesn't show up anymore.. almost proves THEY knew what they were initially doing and changed.

They also removed "yo'self"

https://www.google.com/webhp?source...spv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=yo'self+site:thugkitchen.com

https://www.google.com/webhp?source...&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=homey+site:thugkitchen.com

https://www.google.com/webhp?source...&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=homie+site:thugkitchen.com

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Yeah, they knew what was up.

I don't know if ironic is the right word, but at some point, they realized their choice of "thug" might bite them in the ass later, but they were already too big to change the name for fear of losing the audience they'd already cultivated, so they essentially had to try and, for lack of a better word, whitewash their own site in the event the site grew far beyond being something for "the tumblr crew" to share, so they could minimize the backlash from people who finally saw what they looked like and wondered why they thought it was cool to affect a black caricature in order to regurgitate recipes for spinach smoothies.

 

[ChawlieTheFair]

There is an 80's metal band called WASP if that tells you how old the term is.




What is the joke of young white people using thug life as a joke though? Cause it seems to be, "I'm acting black LOL!" Am I wrong on that? Picture my air quotes around the black there please so people don't take me for a racist. The young person making the joke certainly doesn't have the air quotes around it though.

Actually it's more black viners tbh, but the joke is because thug/thug life = hard/gangsta/hardcore, that saying "thug life" and then doing something not particularly hardcore i.e knocking over a box of cereal. The joke is doing something silly and saying it is hardcore.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

You are actually reading the thread you're participating in, right?

(of course you're not)

My apologies if you feel like I haven't done enough background reading before I engaged in this discussion. This is a forum, and a benefit of a forum is the non-linear and asynchronous nature of it - it's not really necessary for people to read every page in a 6-page thread before taking part of it, and if it turns out I missed something I can always look at it some other time.

I read the OP, and I read some randomly sampled posts, before submitting my non-american opinion on the situation.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

My apologies if you feel like I haven't done enough background reading before I engaged in this discussion. This is a forum, and a benefit of a forum is the non-linear and asynchronous nature of it -.

It's not "background reading" it's just reading. The thread in and of itself is providing answers to questions you're asking before you ask them. Threads are not non-linear or asyncrhonous. That doesn't even make sense to say. It does explain why you've been posting the way you have, though.

I read the OP, and I read some randomly sampled posts, before submitting my non-american opinion on the situation

It was fairly obvious before you admitted it.

If you care enough about a topic to contribute your opinion to it, you should care enough to actually pay attention to contents of the conversation you're about to join. And if you don't care that much, you're probably better off not joining in the first place, as the likelihood of your having something interesting to say declines sharply in relation to how much of the conversation you're willing to discard out of hand.

 

[markot]

Why.... So they became popular because they added fuck and shit to recipes?

God I hate foodies.

 

[Kinitari]

I don't hear the word ever used in Toronto except by black peeps. I don't ever really know if it's an insult or what

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

This thread:

people who don't read the thread before responding (because messageboards aren't a place where conversations happen, they're a place where you drive-by topics you don't like and barf something in the general direction of a thread and maybe someone will slip on it)

people who don't have personal experience with the topic being put forth

people upset at the idea of the topic in general

people who then try to dismiss the topic out of hand due to their lack of familiarity with the topic.

people who explain (repeatedly) how the topic is actually rooted in a verifiable reality that is easily observed.

people who either then leave the thread, or return to line three, except now they've decided that the people in line five are "outrage olympians,' even though the majority of the posts expressing any sort of outrage (itself a coded term meant to suggest the person engaged in the conversation are overemotional/faking their stance) belong to the people who simply refuse to believe there's any actual merit to not only the topic, but the specific example being cited in the topic.

There's a lot of knee-jerk dismissal and defensiveness regarding this topic on behalf of a ton of people who shouldn't be feeling as such considering they almost all tend to lead with the declaration that they're NOT the kind of person being discussed in the topic.

Fuck yes.

I don't see "outrage Olympics" as much as I see a bunch of people trying to explain the codeword and culture issues around this while others come in like a Fox News surprise party. "Surprise, you're the real racist!" "Ugh now I have to think about the words I use, why can't you just get over it for my sake?"

 

[Kathian]

Blackface is racist for giving black roles to white actors so they did not have to hire black people.

Was this article written by a white person?

 

[.GqueB.]

I always thought it was run by white college dudes. It doesn't read very "black" to be honest.

 

[Kathian]

I always thought it was run by white college dudes. It doesn't read very "black" to be honest.

Black people (by which I mean black American as anyone else is unimportant) are clearly culturally linked to gangster life. It's like Italian Americans but without the box office success.

Or the whole thing is ignorant nonsense from someone clearly out of touch and privileged.

America needs to understand class politics and start moving out of this race obsession. Trust me many working class and poor white/asian/Latino people are mocked and locked out of a large section of society.

Nothing in this site is mocking or locking; writer hasn't a ducking clue what nonsense he's talking about. Fashionable race politics is the work king because people are simply using it.

 

[thepotatoman]

I do see where thug is becoming more and more of a racist code word, but I don't think thug is exclusively used as a racial code word, and it could just mean something like hardcore.

I mean, my first major experience with the word was with John Cena's thuganomics, which seemed to start as a way for him to talk more shit than he could back up with actions, and evolved into him growing into the role of being good enough to back up those words. I mean when Cena was coming out to music raping about thuganomics, and he would do things like say "mother" and let the crowd say "fucker". It's not like he was making fun of a stereotype expecting people to laugh, it was just a cool hardcore thing to do.

But that was the WWE, where you expect people to act "hardcore" unironically. Here it's used ironically to be hardcore about a very non-hardcore thing.

If you want to see how bad they used to be, use the internet wayback machine.

Not sure if this link works:

https://web.archive.org/web/20121023080117/http://thugkitchen.com/

They mixed in way more ebonics.

If that doesn't work, just go to http://web.archive.org and type thugkitchen.com in, and use the calendar to go back to one of the October 2012 cache dates.

"Yo", "Yo,self", "Kid", "Son".. it's endless..

Ok, yeah, that's a problem. Without this stuff I wouldn't have a problem at all, but that's rather gross.

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

Shuri and Squiddy just want the good ol' Gaf/America back, where no one cared about race and Stephen Frye memes were all you needed

 

[Slayven]

Black people (by which I mean black American as anyone else is unimportant) are clearly culturally linked to gangster life. It's like Italian Americans but without the box office success.

Or the whole thing is ignorant nonsense from someone clearly out of touch and privileged.

America needs to understand class politics and start moving out of this race obsession. Trust me many working class and poor white/asian/Latino people are mocked and locked out of a large section of society.

Nothing in this site is mocking or locking; writer hasn't a ducking clue what nonsense he's talking about. Fashionable race politics is the work king because people are simply using it.

We can move on to class when it becomes illegal to execute black men in the street.

 

[JzeroT1437]

The continued existence of white people is somehow also racist.

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

The continued existence of white people is somehow also racist.

That's a very sharp analysis

 

[Pandaman]

As a curiosity, i googled 'thug' and checked the image results.

it's somewhat amusing that there seem to only be two types of people with 'thug life' tattoos; white people and Tupac.

anyway, i was surprised to hear some people think 'thug' is or was an exclusively black term, that has not been my experience at all [and i have the world record holder for highschool thug-wannabe for a brother]. Are you guys sure you aren't making an 'all squares are rectangles thus all rectangles are squares' type error?

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

As a curiosity, i googled 'thug' and checked the image results.

it's somewhat amusing that there seem to only be two types of people with 'thug life' tattoos; white people and Tupac.

anyway, i was surprised to hear some people think 'thug' is or was an exclusively black term, that has not been my experience at all [and i have the world record holder for highschool thug-wannabe for a brother]. Are you guys sure you aren't making an 'all squares are rectangles thus all rectangles are squares' type error?

Read more carefully and you'll see that we're not saying thug is an exclusively black term; in SOME cases it's use as a substitute for nigger or a coded way to classify something as "urban," "black," etc. This is one of those cases.

It's not an either/or situation but that concept seems to be impossible for some people to grasp

 

[Kinyou]

Wtf how is "mayo is nasty" a black stereotype? Mayo IS fucking nasty.

You'll put that shit on a fishstick and see the light.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

I even dip my fries in mayo while eating them with a knife and fork, but that's mainly to make Americans uncomfortable.

 

[.GqueB.]

Wtf how is "mayo is nasty" a black stereotype? Mayo IS fucking nasty.

There are two food things that I'll never understand:

1. People somehow don't like delicious mayo
2. People somehow enjoy disgusting Avocados

 

[akira28]

As a curiosity, i googled 'thug' and checked the image results.

it's somewhat amusing that there seem to only be two types of people with 'thug life' tattoos; white people and Tupac.

anyway, i was surprised to hear some people think 'thug' is or was an exclusively black term, that has not been my experience at all [and i have the world record holder for highschool thug-wannabe for a brother]. Are you guys sure you aren't making an 'all squares are rectangles thus all rectangles are squares' type error?

no one thinks that it's exclusive, but the implications are well known and widespread, in America.

If you're not American, or are American but happen to be homeschooled, then maybe the confusion is understandable.

 

[jts]

You'll put that shit on a fishstick and see the light.

I ain't no gay fish!

 

[richiek]

There are two food things that I'll never understand:

1. People somehow don't like delicious mayo
2. People somehow enjoy disgusting Avocados

Love avocados, hate mayo. Deal with it.

 

[bigmf]

Ok here's the story so far: Some football player was hollerin' on TV. Some morons said he was acting like a thug. Some other people who are so fucking dumb they need to wear nose plugs when it rains said ' that's racist' . So those shitheads have now set the precedent that 'thug' is now and forever will be a racist term. Otherwise the helmet wearing nose plug needing dickheads will need to find something else to be offended about on other people's behalf.

 

[ChawlieTheFair]

There are two food things that I'll never understand:

1. People somehow don't like delicious mayo
2. People somehow enjoy disgusting Avocados

I quite like both. Hell maybe even together on a sandwich with Chicken and red peppers.

no one thinks that it's exclusive, but the implications are well known and widespread, in America.

If you're not American, or are American but happen to be homeschooled, then maybe the confusion is understandable.

They didn't teach me the racial undertones of thug in school.

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

Ok here's the story so far: Some football player was hollerin' on TV. Some morons said he was acting like a thug. Some other people who are so fucking dumb they need to wear nose plugs when it rains said ' that's racist' . So those shitheads have now set the precedent that 'thug' is now and forever will be a racist term. Otherwise the helmet wearing nose plug needing dickheads will need to find something else to be offended about on other people's behalf.

Everything you post is worthless

 

[richiek]

Ok here's the story so far: Some football player was hollerin' on TV. Some morons said he was acting like a thug. Some other people who are so fucking dumb they need to wear nose plugs when it rains said ' that's racist' . So those shitheads have now set the precedent that 'thug' is now and forever will be a racist term. Otherwise the helmet wearing nose plug needing dickheads will need to find something else to be offended about on other people's behalf.

You're forgetting bigots smearing and victim blaming Travon Martin by calling him a thug.
If you can't see that the term 'thug' has racial connotations in the US, you are in denial.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Ok here's the story so far: Some football player was hollerin' on TV. Some morons said he was acting like a thug. Some other people who are so fucking dumb they need to wear nose plugs when it rains said ' that's racist' . So those shitheads have now set the precedent that 'thug' is now and forever will be a racist term. Otherwise the helmet wearing nose plug needing dickheads will need to find something else to be offended about on other people's behalf.

 

[Parallax]

This thread:

people who don't read the thread before responding (because messageboards aren't a place where conversations happen, they're a place where you drive-by topics you don't like and barf something in the general direction of a thread and maybe someone will slip on it)

people who don't have personal experience with the topic being put forth

people upset at the idea of the topic in general

people who then try to dismiss the topic out of hand due to their lack of familiarity with the topic.

people who explain (repeatedly) how the topic is actually rooted in a verifiable reality that is easily observed.

people who either then leave the thread, or return to line three, except now they've decided that the people in line five are "outrage olympians,' even though the majority of the posts expressing any sort of outrage (itself a coded term meant to suggest the person engaged in the conversation are overemotional/faking their stance) belong to the people who simply refuse to believe there's any actual merit to not only the topic, but the specific example being cited in the topic.

There's a lot of knee-jerk dismissal and defensiveness regarding this topic on behalf of a ton of people who shouldn't be feeling as such considering they almost all tend to lead with the declaration that they're NOT the kind of person being discussed in the topic.

this is how most threads like this run.

 

[bigmf]

Everything you post is worthless

Aw, you hurt my feelings.