All-You-Can-Eat Taco Bars Deemed Offensive, Face Campus Extinction

The easiest way to solve this dilemma is to celebrate 'Cinco de Quatro'.

originally posted by: FlyersFan
Oh come on .... all you can eat tacos ... there is nothing wrong with that. The schools here have some all you can eat spaghetti on Christopher Columbus day. (Heavy Italian population in that part of town). No one has a meltdown.

Sit back and enjoy the food. Relax. If you don't like it ... take a siesta or something.

TACOS .. MMMMMMMM

Not that I'm actually agreeing with the actual people who took offence, but I think you are missing something. It's not the eating of Mexican food (for those who talk about it being Texan in parts, errrmmm, who owned Texas at the time?), if you read, tacos were still partaken. The issue is about the theme of people (according to those who took offence) dressing and acting in an exaggerated stereotype of Mexicans. On a college campus. If you agree with them or not is neither here nor there, but their right to complain is without any question.

If it involved white people blacking up, wearing a afro wig and acting in a stereotypical manner of black people from the slave era while singing minstrel songs and eating corn on the cob, do you think black people would have any right to feel offended by that? If not, why not? What is different?

a reply to: uncommitted

They do have a right to complain.

And others have a right to scoff at them for it.

Texas was annexed in 1845. Cinco de Mayo/Battle of Puebla happened in 1862. Texas was American when Cinco de Mayo happened.

What is really a shame is that celebrations like that were originally intended so that cultures could be shared. And in the act of doing that, we end up with some folks screaming "racism", watering it down further and further so that it has nearly lost any real meaning.

Once again, it seems that we are hearing about this from a location that is nearly 1000 miles away geographically, and a million miles away socially, from Mexico.

originally posted by: uncommitted
The issue is about the theme of people (according to those who took offence) dressing and acting in an exaggerated stereotype of Mexicans.

originally posted by: yeahright

originally posted by: uncommitted
The issue is about the theme of people (according to those who took offence) dressing and acting in an exaggerated stereotype of Mexicans.

The following is my opinion as a member participating in this discussion.

How does one 'act in an exaggerated stereotype of Mexicans'? I have no idea what that means. Actually, I'm not sure I know what dressing in an exaggerated... means, either. Like the Romanian born Duncan Renaldo who played The Cisco Kid?

As an ATS Staff Member, I will not moderate in threads such as this where I have participated as a member.

I don't know, I'm reading the actual OP rather than thinking it's that people were offended that Mexican food was eaten.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: uncommitted

They do have a right to complain.

And others have a right to scoff at them for it.

Texas was annexed in 1845. Cinco de Mayo/Battle of Puebla happened in 1862.

Texas was American when Cinco de Mayo happened.

What is really a shame is that celebrations like that were originally intended so that cultures could be shared. And in the act of doing that, we end up with some folks screaming "racism", watering it down further and further so that it has nearly lost any real meaning.

Once again, it seems that we are hearing about this from a location that is nearly 1000 miles away geographically, and a million miles away socially, from Mexico.

Hi BFFT, that isn't to say that food classed culturally as 'Mexican' didn't actually exist before 1845 in Texas though does it? Anyhow, that was a side point.

originally posted by: ketsuko


I suppose the moral of the story is that if you're born a white American. Don't have culture. Any culture.

If you do, the PC Police are coming for you.

It's not just happening in America, it's happening in other countries that have a lot of white people. In Canada, I'm constantly told there is no white Canadian culture. I can't be a proud Canadian. I must embrace multiculturalism but I also have to be so careful when talking about other cultures and it’s best for me to not talk about it all when around minorities.

They are so easily offended, it’s crazy. They’re constantly on the look out for racism and scrutinize every thing you do and say.

originally posted by: JustACoincidence
I can't be a proud Canadian.

Better stop eating out at Mexican restaurants then.
Wouldn't want to offend anyone.
Several million people would be jobless overnight though.

This is proof there is no end to the demands of the cultural reformers (aka "progressives"). You can't celebrate your own culture or history if you're a white American but now it's offensive to sample those of others. Do we need further proof these people are insane and delusional? They better be careful or my white guilt and privilege may suddenly vanish.

a reply to: JustACoincidence

Every time we're cowed in to silence their agenda creeps a bit further along.
We all need to speak our hearts and minds and consequences be damned.
Our freedoms are going faster than tacos at a cinco de mayo party.

originally posted by: yeahright

originally posted by: JustACoincidence
I can't be a proud Canadian.

The following is my opinion as a member participating in this discussion.

Not as long as Bieber's in the wild. That dude's blown it for all of you.

As an ATS Staff Member, I will not moderate in threads such as this where I have participated as a member.

Yeah you’re right. By the time he’s dead, Canada will have changed into a multicultural PC wonderland.

I feel bad for Americans, because making fun of Canadians just won’t be the same.

originally posted by: uncommitted

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: uncommitted

They do have a right to complain.

And others have a right to scoff at them for it.

Texas was annexed in 1845. Cinco de Mayo/Battle of Puebla happened in 1862.

Texas was American when Cinco de Mayo happened.

What is really a shame is that celebrations like that were originally intended so that cultures could be shared. And in the act of doing that, we end up with some folks screaming "racism", watering it down further and further so that it has nearly lost any real meaning.

Once again, it seems that we are hearing about this from a location that is nearly 1000 miles away geographically, and a million miles away socially, from Mexico.

Hi BFFT, that isn't to say that food classed culturally as 'Mexican' didn't actually exist before 1845 in Texas though does it? Anyhow, that was a side point.

It was for me, too. The meat of my point:

Once again, it seems that we are hearing about this from a location that is nearly 1000 miles away geographically, and a million miles away socially, from Mexico.

a reply to: ketsuko

That is just retarded.

PC culture and all those who support it are vermin. Bored meaningless lives filled with nonsense to occupy a slow death and eventual extinction.

I will dance on your grave PC world.

originally posted by: JustACoincidence
I feel bad for Americans, because making fun of Canadians just won’t be the same.

a reply to: uncommitted

Actually, they didn't dress up like Mexicans. They only used some items for décor. The second article I linked was a Huffington Post article I dug up that was using those pictures to illustrate what they considered to be cultural appropriation. They only picture in the original article showed a girl sitting at a long table with a brightly colored plastic table cloth with a plate of taco. She wasn't wearing anything other than a standard sundress - no sombrero, no mustache, no flag. In fact, none of those items were even in the picture, so you only have the article's written description to go that they were in evidence at all.

The HuffPo pics did not come from these two events.

I am honestly confused as to what you guys are mad about.

The College Fix article that is linked/mentioned is an opinion piece (an editorial). It's heavy on assumptions and rhetoric. A lot of "some people say this" and "the trend is that" without any actual sources being cited. It talks about "politically correct Cinco de Mayo hysteria" which isn't a thing.

The whole piece reads like one of those chain e-mails my grandparents keep forwarding around.

At best it's clickbait.

No one is saying white people can't serve and enjoy Mexican food or decorations. What you probably shouldn't do is dress up to look like someone from another culture. I get it; that sort of thing used to be acceptable. I was in several Thanksgiving pageants in grade school where we dressed up "like Indians." But times are changing. Now, in a lot of places in the U.S., that is no longer acceptable and people will get mad.

To put is as simply as possible: yeah, wearing a mustache and sombrero because "look everybody, I'm a Mexican" is not okay. Same for wearing lederhosen because "I'm German, ha ha ha." Or squinting and wearing buck teeth to "look Chinese." Or dressing in a beret and carrying around a loaf of French bread as a French "costume".

Even if you're doing it with good intentions, for charity, and don't believe you're presenting a negative stereotype, don't do it.

Seems like it's okay to use decorations from a particular culture as a theme. You can hang pinatas and put sombreros on the wall. But don't depict the people.

Don't hang a picture of a Mexican person taking a siesta. Don't use a cartoon character of "an Arab" or "an Eskimo" as a mascot. And definitely don't try to dress how you think they dress. Doing so reduces those people, and their culture, to mere caricatures. It is disrespectful and offensive.

Of course you can do whatever the hell you want. But if you care -- if your idea of fun isn't based on making fun of other people -- then this is an easy rule of thumb to follow.

Oh, I am sad. I got to looking at our favorite recipe binder last night ... We're so guilty of cultural appropriation. Between the green pozole recipe and the tamale recipe, we've got a hummus recipe and an egg drop soup recipe along with a Thai spring roll recipe. I think Africans are about the only ones we haven't yet managed to offend, and that's only because we don't yet have a reliable supplier for African ingredients that's convenient to the home. Oh, no, we do have a Carribean recipe, and the Caribbean islands have a lot of people of African descent living there. Maybe that counts!

I have now offended almost every major ethnic group, and I'm still collecting recipes ...

a reply to: Blender Ace

Except no one at these functions was dressing up as a Mexican. All they did was use a few standard Mexican items as décor like you see in Mexican restaurants.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Blender Ace

Except no one at these functions was dressing up as a Mexican. All they did was use a few standard Mexican items as décor like you see in Mexican restaurants.

From the editorial:
"the university’s dining services staff voluntarily wore fake mustaches and sombreros during its Cinco de Mayo dinner."

originally posted by: ObservingTheWorld
The easiest way to solve this dilemma is to celebrate 'Cinco de Quatro'.

There's bound to be some blowback...