A Fun Face?
Posted By The Editors | January 28th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | 9 comments
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By Stacey Patton
 Greenwich Village baker, Ted Kefalinos’ Drunken Negro Head cookie |
 1955 photograph of the mutilated body of 14 year-old Emmett Till, published in JET Magazine |
Normally when you visit a bakery shop and order a cup of coffee, the attendant asks, “Do you want cream or sugar with that?” But when one customer who stopped by a Greenwich Village pastry shop a few days ago, the store owner asked: “Would you like some drunken negro heads to go with your coffee? They’re in honor of our new president. He’s following in the same path of Abraham Lincoln; he will get his.”
When I saw news reports of the baker’s “Drunken Negro Head” cookie that he started selling on Martin Luther King Day, I was immediately struck by its grotesque familiarity.
Though Ted Kefalinos, owner of the Lafayette French Bakery located at 26 Greenwich Avenue, said that his “fun face” was an innocent “work of art,” the cookie instantly conjured up the mutilated face of the 14 year-old Emmet Till, a Chicago resident who was brutally murdered in Mississippi during the summer of 1955. The teen had transgressed racial boundaries when he wolf whistled at a white woman. Till’s mother, Mamie Bradley, allowed JET Magazine to publish graphic pictures of her son because, as she stated, “I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby.”
The shocking photos of Till haunted an entire generation of black children and galvanized the civil rights movement. The media images of the Kefalinos’ controversial cookies have provoked widespread condemnation from people of all hues. Local reporters have chastised Kefalinos and media reports have shown the outrage of people from various races. Since the story broke a few days ago, Greenwich Village residents and others have threatened to boycott the pastry shop. He has received death threats and some callers have promised to burn down his establishment.
Kefalinos has now apologized to The Daily News and other news outlets for his “innocent” mistake. “I’m sorry that people were offended by the cookie,” he said. “We were trying to make a large number of people happy, and instead we made a large number of people confused and angry.”
Huh?
This chocolate “treat” is not some innocent caricature of black people. It is an edible creation that wells up out of deep racist views and feelings. And now that Kelifanos has been called on his behavior, he has resorted to a claim of innocence.
There is something complexly pathological about people who spew racist ideas and create racial kitsch to be consumed by the public and then say they were just having fun or act surprised when black folks and other humanitarians are offended by such perversity.
During Obama’s campaign we saw the “Obama Bucks Food Stamp.” Obama appeared on a fake $10 bill with “United States Food Stamps” printed above his head attached to a donkey. He was surrounded by a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, ribs, watermelon, and Kool-Aid. The creator of the Obama Bucks, the Chaffey Community Republican Women Federated, said there was nothing sinister or racist about their production.
When told that the food surrounding Obama was stereotypically racist, the organization’s president Diane Fedele responded, “I didn’t see it the way that it’s being taken. I never connected. It was just food to me. It didn’t mean anything else.”
Okay, so why didn’t she choose arugula, patte fois gras or petit-fours?
In May of 2008, an Atlanta bar and grill owner peddled tee-shirts featuring a look-a-like of cartoon monkey Curious George peeling a banana, with an “Obama in ‘08” caption printed underneath. When exposed, the bar owner, Mike Norman, said the shirts were not meant to offend. He said he saw nothing wrong with depicting a prominent African-American as a monkey despite the disparaging historical roots of the image.
“Look at him,” Norman told a reporter, “the hairline, the ears – he looks just like Curious George.”
And most recently, there was the “Barack the Magic Negro” CD that a candidate for the Republican National Committee sent to committee members for Christmas. He defended his CD calling it “political satire.”
What does all of this mean?
Individuals who symbolize an era of transformation help bring out the best in people, and they provoke others to show their worst. President Obama is one of those figures. And our “friendly” Greenwich Village baker is of the same ilk as those who murdered Till. His cookie is a product reminiscent of a hateful era and the intent behind his cooked-up recipe cannot be defended or disputed. It is impossible for those familiar with history to see these cookies as benign. Nor can we deny the direct relationship between such imagery and more lethal forms of violence.
Just as Kefalinos proclaims his innocence, in the same breathe he made a threat against a sitting president with his remarks about Lincoln’s assassination.
Shouldn’t he be arrested for that?
Claims of innocence just don’t ring true, especially when American history is littered with hateful, disparaging images of blacks whether it is a cookie or a corpse.
Watch a video news report on this issue.
Stacey Patton is Senior Editor of TheDefendersOnline and Senior Writer/Editor for the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc.
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yes, racism is not dead just because obama became president. we all need to speak up and work on this awful toxic ism in our culture. more racism workshops by naacp would be great. i took one 10 yrs ago by the people’s institute in louisiana, they came to pittsburgh. it was great as i learned about my white privilege and insitutional racism. all white people should take a workshop like this one. so much of what has been done to the black community haunts me. peace and healing to you and all the world, mary ruth aull retired r.n. who served in black communities where i learnd first hand about racism.
Just as much obnoxious material was printed and posted about Bush. Was it because he was white? Why is one bad and the other funny?
I understand that racism, in many places, still runs strong in America despite the election of our first African American President, but this blog is more incindiery than educational, progressive, or journalistic. You say nothing that could move people forward; what a waste of an opportunity. And for the record, the only thing more disgusting than that racist cookie is your use of Emmett Till as a comparison. Really? You’re going to dishonor Emmett Till by comparing him to a cookie? You should be ashamed.
There is a difference between “obnoxious” material about Bush and racism aimed at Obama. Not to mention the fact that much of the disparaging commentary aimed at Bush had a basis in fact and was targeted at his performance as president. I would argue that dissent is a fundamental right in a democracy and one we should be proud that we can exercise. On the other hand, have any of you seen Obama drunk, carrying a bucket of chicken, with a side of watermelon and a glass of kool-aid? What does this have to do with his policies or his performance as president? Isn’t the point of these “mistakes in judgment” to make fun of his race? How does this in any way comport with criticism of Bush? And why is this blog incendiary? Because it dares ask questions that make some people uncomfortable? As it should? Hardly a wasted opportunity, it’s a chance for some of us to think and think hard. I ask myself every day how I’m supposed to explain continued racial stupidity to my daughter who at 7, is quite an innocent when it comes to resuscitated black stereotypes we all wish would die. And yet, folks insist on breathing life back into them time and time again under the guise of ignorance. Thank you throw-back America, you never fail to disappoint.
Jenna, I think you need a lesson on what a comparison really is. It seems you completely missed the point of this piece. No where in the piece does the writer say that Till is LIKE the Drunken Negro Head cookie. And the writer is not dishonoring the legacy of Till, but instead, reminding us about the various degrees of perversity in American racism. Read the piece again.
And Niki Mitchell . . . DITTO!
personally, i think the blogger did not intend to compare Emmett Till to a cookie, in fact, the baker did. the subject at hand is racism, is it not despicable that people still hate blacks because of the color of their skin? the way they act? I may be only fifteen, but i know right from wrong. i grew up around persians, modern day Iranians or “arabs”. and it is beyond me that people who dress culturally to their home country doesnt mean that they should be plucked out by the airport and body searched. I just did an activity on Emmet Till today, and i consider it typical for a racist baker to make an edible treat shaped and disfigured like Poor Emmett’s face. does this mean we should disregard it and forgive the person? absolutely not. in America, racism needs to be eliminated, not prevented. this is because people never change. life isnt like the movie “american history x” very rarely do people change. i believe that the people in america making racial actions and slurs such as this should be arrested
and, in fact, its illegal to say “im going to kill the president” in front of an authoritative figure, it is also illegal to say “i really think someone should kill the president” as well.
What does all this mean??? It means that racist b*****ds still exist in this world and when asked about their racism…OFCOURSE their going to deny it, thats what they do. Certain people need to face facts and realize that not everything on this earth is WHITE, CAUCASIAN,…or what ever you want to call it. Their are people of MANY different races all across the United States. And personally i am mixed with BOTH black&white. Does that mean my parents sinned? Or were wrong? NO IT DOES NOT…They were 2 people in love. People in this world need to get over the fact that our president is black…and honestly if you think about it, HE’S HALF WHITE!!!! ….Whether President Obama were black, white, asian, or even hispanic…theres nothin anyone could possibly do about it. He won so i suggest all you racist b*****ds out there just GET OVER IT!!! Racism should not be an everyday issue that is discussed anymore….it should not be discussed at all if people just learn to live and except the fact that no matter what race, we all live and breath the same air. No one is better than anyone…we are all equal.
There is only one race.
The Human Race.
Yes, racism is yet alive, but to post a picture of Emmett Till mutilated body and posting it next to “negro cookies” is unacceptable. That is the worst kind of racist. I can forgive the ignorance of treating us different, calling us names, and being just plain mean. But to do something of this sort is just outright disrespect and you will get yours.