Althouse: "Are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches racist?"

September 30, 2012

"Are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches racist?"

"A bizarre question, to say the least, but one that at least one school administrator is asking out in Portland, Oregon. Verenice Gutierrez, principal at Harvey Scott K-8 School, seems to believe that there are racial connotations associated with the common lunch-time meal."

50 comments:

John Burgess said...: I was going to be all surprised and shocked and stuff, but then I saw it was in Oregon. It's just SOP there.; 9/30/12, 11:07 PM
John Burgess said...: I was going to be all surprised and shocked and stuff, but then I saw it was in Oregon. It's just SOP there.; 9/30/12, 11:07 PM
Birches said...: I saw this article awhile ago and it pissed me off as a Mexican. I remember that people used to think Mexicans only ate tortillas. There was actually a major push by our neighborhood grocery store to get Wonderbread in our stores because people wanted them, but the idiots were too dumb to realize that Mexicans liked regular bread just fine.

Now some idiot wants to put up walls that others have been trying to tear down? She doesn't speak for me or for my family.; 9/30/12, 11:10 PM
Sayyid said...: It's only racist if you say "PBJ" too many times in your radio show. Before then, you're just making a legitimate political point.; 9/30/12, 11:13 PM
rcocean said...: Sorry, I was too distracted by:

‘OBAMA AND THE THREAT TO ISRAEL’: SEE THE ‘ABSOLUTELY UNCERTAIN’ VIDEO THAT’S GOTTEN 650K HITS IN THREE DAYS'

too care about P&J Sandwiches. Plus there's that 2,000 POUND PUMPKIN!; 9/30/12, 11:18 PM
James said...: Ditto what Sayyid said.; 9/30/12, 11:18 PM
Gary Rosen said...: If Rush Limbaugh repeats this story enough times on his radio show that will prove it is racist and thus force AA to oh-so-reluctantly cast her vote for Obama. Yet another Romney gaffe.; 9/30/12, 11:18 PM
Shantastik said...: Rush Limbaugh better not even eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! The white liberal class who live in all white states will deem it racist!; 9/30/12, 11:28 PM
yashu said...: Sorun said on an earlier thread today: "Ok, now I'm bored with all the piling on Althouse."

I agree.; 9/30/12, 11:30 PM
bagoh20 said...: Racism is like humor - if you have to explain it, then it ain't.; 9/30/12, 11:31 PM
David said...: Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!; 9/30/12, 11:34 PM
JAL said...: I think I'd pull my kid out of school if she were the principal. If I had a kid in public school in Portland.

She's insane. They are insane.

It truly is a mental disorder which makes them dangerous to themselves and little children.

Damn. This is America.

Not to mention that blacks and hispanics eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Just look at the grocery carts in the Wal-Mart checkout lines.; 9/30/12, 11:42 PM
JAL said...: Oh yeah -- the answer to the Professor's question is "no."; 9/30/12, 11:46 PM
bagoh20 said...: I think this racism stuff is like Latin - the only people who know it learned it at a University.; 9/30/12, 11:47 PM
kimsch said...: According to that principal if you are Mexican the only bread you can eat is tortilla and if you're Somali it's pita. Who's the racist?; 9/30/12, 11:47 PM
Chip S. said...: The full story at the link reminded me of "The Music Man," with Verenice Gutierrez as Marcellus Washburn and "California-based consultant Glenn Singleton" as Harold Hill.

In this revival, they've replaced the pool table with "white privilege" and the boys' band with an "equity curriculum".

But the biggest change is that instead of Marian Paroo it's the schoolkids of Portland who get screwed in the end.; 9/30/12, 11:58 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Our conscious anti-racism filters maybe keeping this material from reaching us.

We got to keep digging further if we are ever to reach harmony and understanding.; 10/1/12, 12:11 AM
Anonymous said...: Here is the problem
Glenn Singleton’s “Coaching for Educational Equity,” a weeklong seminar on race and how it affects life; she’s also become an “affiliate,” certified to teach the equity curriculum; and she serves on the district’s administrative committee to address systematic racism, a group that meets every other week.

This came to my work also. All about opression and white privelege and recruiting pyramid scheme of vendors. Who were also to marketing downwards.

It's an designed to make your skin thin not your education diverse.; 10/1/12, 12:12 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: I'm watching a video called "Happy" on Netflix.

If you want to see the liberal self-esteem propaganda program in it's full flowering of stupid sanctimony, I highly recommend this video.

The motor behind this racism hysteria is this self-esteem goofiness. In fact, I've read arguments that Brown v. Board of Education was basically decided on the issue of the self-esteem of black kids.

The self-esteem mania, just as Crack says, is a goofball cult.; 10/1/12, 12:16 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: If the nature of a sensor is to sensor... the nature of sensitivity training is to..

Sensitivity Training is the perfect porn title.; 10/1/12, 12:17 AM
gadfly said...: I wonder if Ms. Gutierrez understands what the phrase "when in Rome" means? I find it hard to believe that children, regardless of nationality, would not enjoy PB&J.

I am not Greek or Turk but I like baklava. Verenice must only consume Mexican gruel and chili peppers.; 10/1/12, 12:20 AM
wyo sis said...: States with the best educated population:

Oregon 38th; 10/1/12, 12:23 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: There is a scene in the movie Margaret (2011) that fits very well with this story.

After witnessing a fatal bus crash, a young woman believes she inadvertently played a part in the tragedy. As she tries to deal with her feelings, she becomes emotionally abusive to those around her -- and to herself.

The scene I'm referring took place in a classroom and there was, what appeared to me was a classroom monitor... A rabbit hole if you ask who is monitoring the monitor? and where are they from and what god do they prey to?

The best visual description to my mind is the infinite iterations of a fractal.

Out of a simple rule... 'doing whats best for the children'... we can develop infinite complexity.; 10/1/12, 12:50 AM
Cedarford said...: Please be quiet about this. Verenice Gutierrez, a blessing of diversity since her parents came here from Mexico - is merely saying that peanut butter and jelly is evil. Because it holds oppressed hispanic and black students behind on this sandwich of white privilege and white supremacy.

(BTW, her school is 75% 3rd Worlders and 85% of them get free lunches, free school suppies, and free breakfasts courtesy of white oppressors. Who also pay Verenice's salary)
Soon each kid may have his or her own free ObamaPhone!
250-300 free minutes!

I hesitate to mention this to others and hope the press rapidly buries it as she hoped to do with white oppressor cuisine!!

Repeat it or say it disgusts you...and you are a RACIST!
RACIST!
RACIST!
RACIST!!

Now fall on your knees and beg the Left not to accuse you of being racist, antiSemitic, Islamophobic, anti gay bigot, or sexist.!!!!

Now go away pasty-skins, with your stinking Christianist ways!!; 10/1/12, 1:07 AM
Carnifex said...: Well, I'd just like to say that the professor doesn't write these articles. She just brings them to our attention and SQUIRREL!!!!; 10/1/12, 1:11 AM
Gary Rosen said...: C-fudd will suddenly gain more sympathy for Gutierrez when he realizes she has the same Middle East policy that he does.; 10/1/12, 2:12 AM
Darrell said...: Racist is Democrats darkening Mia Love's photo for their campaign ad--just like they did for Jidhal in Louisiana in 2003. For Allen West, they did go classy with an animation showing him punching a white woman, though. So at least they know more than one race-baiting trick. But Jimmy Carter who bombarded citizens of Georgia with an ad showing his opponent hanging with his fellow basketball players and coaches--all black-- could have told you that.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/dems-darken-image-black-republican-house-candidate_653152.html; 10/1/12, 3:29 AM
MayBee said...: Sorun said on an earlier thread today: "Ok, now I'm bored with all the piling on Althouse."

So far, I'd say she's had it easier than Sarah Jessica Parker's horse face.; 10/1/12, 3:48 AM
Mike Anderson ... said...: Stupidest damned thing I've ever heard. I'm retired, wife's unemployed. I get $1300 a month, wife gets nothing. We eat lots of PBJ sammiches. I thought we'd wind up with the occasional can of tuna.; 10/1/12, 4:20 AM
Aridog said...: What Carniflex said.; 10/1/12, 5:38 AM
edutcher said...: I'm sure PB&J thinks so.

Although I thought black people ate soul food.

I thought PB&Js were too whitebread to be for black people.

At least, that's what the black people on TV are always saying.

But this woman's Hispanic.

So what does she know?; 10/1/12, 6:24 AM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: Sometimes, the only phrase that works is

Full Retard; 10/1/12, 7:41 AM
Jeff said...: Snark is not generally a compelling argument; this absurdity is of a kind with Ann's "Obama Phone" critique, though dissimilar in degree. I suspect that there is a generational issue at work, but as a millennial I find this boomer race neurosis maddening. Both of these accusations count on "dog whistles." We're supposed to know that bread is a white cultural item and that mooching is a black cultural trait and therefore they're racist. Yet, we're not supposed to pay attention to race; the only way to not be racist is to judge someone on the content of their character instead of the color of their skin.

Well pick one. I can either do my level best to ignore a person's race and treat everyone the same, or I can be completely conscious of how everything I say and do might be racially tinged. If I do the one, I'm racist for ignoring the other and vice versa. If everything is racist, then nothing is.; 10/1/12, 8:26 AM
Clyde said...: Everything is racist! Peanut butter sandwiches! Free Obama phones! Tomahawk chopping faux Indian Senatorial candidates! All racist!

And if you even thought about the shootings at the BET awards show between the rappers, why, that's racist, too!

Racist!; 10/1/12, 8:37 AM
test said...: Everything's racist. If you think it isn't it's only because the race baiters haven't told us how yet.

My favorite:

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/opinion/article/Planning-ahead-is-considered-racist-1204942.php; 10/1/12, 8:57 AM
Mary Beth said...: I got the feeling that a lot of it is her trying to validate taking that "Coaching for Educational Equity" seminar and possibly creating reasons that will create a need for others to take the seminar from her.; 10/1/12, 9:21 AM
Aridog said...: Mary Beth said...

... "Coaching for Educational Equity" seminar and possibly creating reasons that will create a need for others to take the seminar from her.

But of course. That is how pyramid scams work, right? Everybody is a sales agent, investing in their own business....working on dear leader's principles, yada yada...

Cue Crack Emcee about here...it is barely one step away from cult systemics.

Who knew?; 10/1/12, 9:44 AM
Sabinal said...: my response to this article?

oh, grow up!!!; 10/1/12, 9:48 AM
Hagar said...: How about pizza with anchovies and green chile?
Very ecumenical!; 10/1/12, 10:05 AM
Sam L. said...: There's a bumper sticker there saying "Keep Portland Weird". Too many people there subscribe to that.; 10/1/12, 10:10 AM
kristinintexas said...: “What about Somali or Hispanic students, who might not eat sandwiches?,” she said. “Another way would be to say: ‘Americans eat peanut butter and jelly, do you have anything like that?’ Let them tell you. Maybe they eat torta. Or pita.”

So people of Somali or Hispanic hertiage aren't, or can't be, American?; 10/1/12, 10:19 AM
kristinintexas said...: Oops - "heritage"; 10/1/12, 10:20 AM
Aridog said...: Hagar said...

How about pizza with anchovies and green chile?

Projectile vomiting is a good thing?

It IS Hagar's fault for proposing a pizza of rotted salted dead minnows and unripened chilies. Why not add soggy broccoli, grown in night soil,(organic ya' know) to that for certain explosiveness?; 10/1/12, 10:54 AM
pdug said...: we REALLY Need to distinguish between racism and privilege.

No a PBJ sandwhich isn't racist.

But talking to a mixed group of people and assuming everyone knows what a PBJ is and likes it ALSO isn't racist (it isn't intended to discriminate, it isn't from hate or fear of the Other, it isn't part of a program of intimidation, etc)

But it is an example of majority culture privilege. And a teacher with a bunch of 'diverse' kids should probably do as suggested.

The problem is we don't keep new immigrants on ellis island for a few months teaching them about PBJs and such.; 10/1/12, 11:57 AM
Aridog said...: SIGH

I live among immigrants, thousands of them, next door close ... and I guarantee you every one of them who has been here a week knows what a PBJ is...you CAN make one with Pita bread you know...and I've yet to see an Arabic grocery with out peanut butter and jams by the shelf full. Same thing over in Mexican town.

How DO these ideas get started? Srsly.; 10/1/12, 12:12 PM
Methadras said...: peanut butter jelly time!!! peanut butter jelly time!!!; 10/1/12, 3:07 PM
Synova said...: The issue isn't feeding the kids PB&J it's teachers using a PB&J sandwich as an example of something in class. Because it has a cultural context that immigrants or non-whites might not relate to.

I skimmed the comments and most of them were talking about what is served in the cafeteria. One fellow, though, said something like... "So if I talk to the black kids about fried chicken and the hispanic kids about beans, then I'm NOT a racist?"

Which I felt was a darn good point. Birches made the same point here. Do I change what I use as examples and only talk to the hispanic kids about beans and tortillas? Kids can't understand what a sandwich is if they usually eat middle eastern style flatbreads? (Pita? Seriously stupid hispanic principal lady, you're going to insist this is pita bread?)

The result is, of course, that no one dares open their mouth because they're going to get in trouble when they least expect it. One lady described the environment at her children's (former) school as just that.

The other thing, the "drum club for black and brown boys" that "hasn't turned anyone away" she justifies as "there is nothing wrong when it's a white boy club." This woman doesn't live on this planet.

Apparently, anything that isn't specifically a brown and black boys club is a white boys club in her world, on her planet.

Schools around here have Mariachi bands (honest they do) and I'm pretty sure that they are presented as a Mariachi band and not "a band for hispanic students."

She couldn't just have a lunch time drum club for *students* or even for boys? She has to have a drum club for black and hispanic boys? Which white and asian boys aren't supposed to feel excluded from joining?

Messed. Up. Lady.; 10/1/12, 3:14 PM
Synova said...: If some kids don't know what a PB&J sandwich is, maybe the class conversation can be about that, so they learn that part of US culture and get the references.

The question in the end is... do you want assimilation and understanding or do you want your quaint ethnic groups kept apart so they can be admired in their cuteness?; 10/1/12, 3:21 PM
Aridog said...: Synova said...

The question in the end is... do you want assimilation and understanding or do you want your quaint ethnic groups kept apart so they can be admired in their cuteness?

Why, yes, that is the question. The quaint thing isn't working out so well in the UK and Europe is it?

You proposal then is so blindly right that Portland progressives will never grasp it.; 10/1/12, 8:24 PM
Dante said...: Well, now, PB&J happens to be vegetarian. But I do think it is necessary to invite PETA to these classrooms. And also Vegans, hunters, and the guy on the radio add who pretends like he is bacon on your grill and wants you to eat him.

All of these minority groups must have representation. Somewhere they are ought there pushing agendas, and the middle demands it. And while we are at it, MO should go to every school to explain why her fat ass is OK, but not on anyone else.

Including the cookie, and M&M characters. They have been under represented too. And Coke, and pepsi.

Only then can a fair representation of all the cultural forces be presented.

A middle of the roader would see the wisdom of all this.; 10/1/12, 9:45 PM