Thursday 23 August 2012

Are we in the 21st century?

Everything *old* is new again.

In a political climate where the ideological dogma & lies of christian Sharia influence public policy and legislation, this casual display of racism should come as no surprise.

Who would believe that items on the menu from Toronto's Holy Chuck Burgers called "The Half-breed" and "The Dirty Drunken Half-Breed" are appetizing?

What, no "Lard Black Beef Pucky" dusted with gold flakes?

via a tweet from Lynda Kitchikeesic.


ADDED by fh: Check out twitter timeline. Seems Holy Chuck Burger got larned a lesson.

UPDATE, August 28/12: Confirmed by enterprising tweep. Lesson learned.


10 comments:

Beijing York said...

I'm getting a "link not found" message.

But the partner and I were thoroughly shocked to hear the guy walking in front of us, crossing Portage Ave, say on his cell phone, not once but at least three times: "Tell them I'll take white guys and natives, but no immigrants".

deBeauxOs said...

Huh, it appears Mr Holy Chuck pulled it off the net, it can't accessed from his home page either.

Incriminating evidence? What an ignorant, bigoted thing to do.

Anonymous said...

just google the burger names and you'll find the evidence...

Godel Noodle said...

ADDED by fh: Check out twitter timeline. Seems Holy Chuck Burger got larned a lesson.

Yeah, from the way they're falling over themselves (on Twitter) trying to apologize and insist that it was an honest mistake instead of vehemently defending the wording of their menu, I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Consider these tweets:
- "The 'Drunken' referred to the alcohol in our chili,"
- "The dirty refers to the messiness of the burger because it has chili poured all over it. And the patty is half beef half pork"
- "That's the ONLY reason why we named it that. But I can see why ppl are offended.We'll chng name"
- "We at HOLY CHUCK r truly sorry to anyone who was offended by our burger TDDHB. IT HAS BEEN REMOVED!"

To me, that sounds like they just MASSIVELY stepped in it and were completely oblivious to what they were writing...but that they understand now and will probably even be much more conscious of the subtlety of language in the future.

I don't blame them for trying to sweep all that under the rug in a big hurry. If they didn't, it could be perceived as equivocating.

That said, I don't think their wacky menu is nearly as "entertaining" or funny as they seem to believe it is. Never understood that approach to doing menus. Ugh. "Animal Feed?" Seriously? This is what you name something that sounds like a rather elegantly prepared veggie burger??

fern hill said...

Yes, the apology sounded sincere. But I'm still getting over the fact that they had never heard of Métis people. They said that. 'Never heard of'.

Well, no I'm not getting over it. Unless they are recent immigrants, I'm still gobsmacked at the ignorance.

Godel Noodle said...

Ehr... Um... Ok, this is gonna sound *really* bad, but I confess the term was only vaguely familiar to me (I had to use Wikipedia just now).

In my defence, I had an utterly abominable Grade 10 History teacher (it was all memorizing dates), and I never took a history course in my life after that.

You wanna talk about ignorance? It wasn't until my mid-20s that I found out a "work Visa" wasn't some kind of credit card, and that Georgia is also the name of a country.

But I designed and built a mechanical pinball machine when I was 10, and by the following year I was able to explain Boolean algebra, write assembly language code, and build a motor or a generator from scratch.

Soo... Just wanted to fess up and my lay my cards on the table there. I'll stop trying it justify it now. :-)

fern hill said...

However much of a non-history major science geek you were, GN, I'd wager you'd rethink naming anything 'half-breed' or 'dirty drunken'.

Embarrassing gaffes: In Grade 11, I had read Albert Camus but had never heard the name pronounced. So when I bragged to the snotty big-mouth class intellectual. . .

I should start an open thread for 'I used to be soooo dumb' stuff. ;-)

Godel Noodle said...

However much of a non-history major science geek you were, GN, I'd wager you'd rethink naming anything 'half-breed' or 'dirty drunken'.

Oh.

Ok, I admit you've got me there--at least when you put them together. I could see using the former in some way with respect to cats, dogs, or horses. Not sure whether that's quite the right terminology, but it seems like it might fit. And I could see maybe naming a ship "The Dirty Drunken Uncle" or something like that.

But, "Dirty Drunken Half-Bre.." Yow! Yeah, there's some kinda neurological V-chip that kicks in there. It does seem a bit smack-you-in-face obvious that there's something not right with that phrase.

To what I owe this sensibility, however, I'm not entirely sure, and the burger people sounded sincere enough for me. I see what you mean, though.

Embarrassing gaffes: In Grade 11, I had read Albert Camus but had never heard the name pronounced. So when I bragged to the snotty big-mouth class intellectual. . .

...uh-huh? What? It's "cam-muss," right? .... Right?? ;-)

Ok, ok, no. I suppose I did hear it pronounced correctly before I ever tried to say it. That's great, though! I feel your pain. I think I'm still clearly the bigger idiot (at least with the Visa thing), but that makes me feel better.

Also, I guess the same thing happened to me with the word "cajun" (I said "cah-zhoon"), but that's not quite so loaded. I mean, Camus, of all things... and used to brag to the snotty big-mouth class intellectual? That's a crash landing for sure. Legs give out from under you when all the blood rushes to your cheeks. :-(

I should start an open thread for 'I used to be soooo dumb' stuff. ;-)

Hehe! I love it.

Oh! Another one I learned in my mid-20s: the expression is not, "It's a doggy-dog world."

fern hill said...

Open thread for embarrassing gaffes

Confession is good for you. Or so some people say.

Anonymous said...

Metis is a nation... Half French Half First Nation. Passed on by the 1st of its kind.
Being a half breed does not mean you will be "Metis"
Being half First Nation and Half (whatever demographic) would make you half breed... My son is half First Nation and half Spanish/Asian but he is not considered Metis. He is a half first nation/ half spanish/asian...

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