Carondelet High School, a private Catholic school in Concord, came under fire this week after adding "racially insensitive" items to the Friday lunch menu. Fried chicken, watermelon and cornbread were set to feed the all-girls school in honor of Black History Month.
Oops.
"I'd like to apologize for this announcement and any hurt this caused students, parents or community members," school principal Nancy Libby said in a letter issued Tuesday. "Please know that at no time at Carondelet do we wish to perpetrate racial stereotypes, and we indeed work diligently to do just the opposite."
Just how the jaw-dropping menu got the KTVU-ian green light remains a mystery. The Oakland Tribune has more:
The Black Student Union, which is run through De La Salle High School -- the neighboring boys' Catholic school — and includes members from both campuses, wanted to do something to celebrate Black History Month, according to Ditzel.Libby's letter was not specific about how the menu decision was made but mentioned that "adults made mistakes causing this situation and that we were doing our best to learn from those mistakes and to bring that knowledge to the CHS experience."
University of San Francisco professor James Taylor told NBC Bay Area why the menu wasn't cool, saying, "Chicken, watermelon, collard greens — these stereotypes of black Southern culture that come from the same place where the N-word comes from." Also, as NBC note, fried chicken and watermelon were heavily featured during the unfortunate era of blackface entertainment.
Carondelet High School cultural sensitivity and diversity training TK.
