Are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches... racist?

In what other country besides the U.S. are public institutions expected to accommodate the cultural habits of every other nationality and ethnicity and language group that might be found within their environs? Are there any? I’d just like to know.

PB&J sandwiches are more of a US cultural aspect. It isn’t connected to a particular race.

“What’s the verdict on grilled cheese? Racist? Sexist?” LMAO.
I find this ridiculous. Can food be racist?

I grew up on peanut butter and syrup and when I married my first husband he told me it was poor Mexican food. I guess THAT was racist food. My first husband didn’t even want me to feed it to my children even though it was one of my childhood favorites.

@Pied_Pfeffer that’s what I thought, as well. Sure, it’s a US thing, but it’s not a “white” thing…. is it?

@DigitalBlue From what I’ve seen in European countries where it is a predominately white race, PB&J is not a staple. There was an article once read where Americans consume more peanut butter than any other country. Hopefully, our fellow Jellies (pun not intended) from outside of the US will chime in.

In my opinion, this is a case where a teacher is attempting to make a point and is using the wrong example.

@Pied_Pfeffer that is also what I think. I can easily see this turning into a joke (it already has), and being used as an example in cases where we really should be concerned about discrimination based on race and/or culture.

@AshLeigh Mention chitlins. Or kreplach. Or sauerkraut. Or mackerel snappers. If you have a tendency to identify certain foods as being common to a particular group of people, it could be a racist thing. I’ve never identified pb & j with any particular group of people, but then, I’m one of the people identified with it’s greatest use. And if you say it with contempt, anything can be a slam.

It’s stuff like this that makes me see where the right-wing nutjobs are coming from…

@DigitalBlue As someone who spent years facilitating in a classroom setting and culling through training documents geared towards people of all ages, races, and cultures, it became apparent that appropriate language is imperative to getting the message across. If we didn’t, then we failed.

@Sunny2 Are any of those foods associated with a race? They seem more cultural to me. Maybe we have a different definition of ‘race’.

@DominicX Are you serious? If so, could you please explain why?

@Pied_Pfeffer Well, I can already see the right-wing responses of “This is what happens with the liberal education system…indoctrination…political correctness gone too far…Jesus…family values, etc.”

But it’s this idea that if you don’t mention every possible alternative to something common, you’re “excluding” people and “offending” them. As a member of a prominent often-discriminated against minority (homosexuals), I wouldn’t feel excluded if every time relationships were mentioned, people didn’t also mention same-sex relationships. You don’t need to say “a husband and his wife should [or husband if he happens to be gay!]...” You don’t need that part in brackets; I’m not going to be bothered if you don’t.

I don’t think that by discussing alternatives, you’re doing anything wrong, I just don’t think it’s always necessary to or practical to include all the alternatives.

I used to like peanut butter sarnies when I was a kid even though bread would weld itself to the roof of my mouth on a frequent basis, really irritating.
The rest is pure psychobabble.

@DominicX Thank you for the explanation. How do you know though that it is a right- or left-winger speaking out? Isn’t that a stereotypical opinion?

Being offended by a comment is one thing. That is a personal choice. There are other options: blow it off, take pity for their ignorance, educate the speaker in either a kind way or through disdain. We all have our reasons for when a comment hits a hot button. It’s how we handle it that may provide results. It is a matter of understanding the individual and addressing it appropriately.

Totally racist

So in order to foster cultural sensitivity the space cadet wants to encourage ignorance?

So what if children of other cultures have not been expressed to PB&J, it can be a tasty learning experience that opens up their minds to other cultures. Am I not allowed to have Injera cause my people eat tortillas?

I don’t think white privellage with PB&J either. I think “barely healthy junk food”, “nostalgia”, and “small paycheck”. >.o

really?

On a related topic, this image was removed from jelly/jam jars some years ago as it was considered racist.

@ucme
You think that is bad? http://www.thetoyzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/greedy-little-nigger-boy.jpg

Peanut Butter and Jelly is definitely gay.

@ragingloli Little Adolf’s pocket money had to go somewhere.

Did anyone look at the photo gallery of 21 other “weird things banned at schools.” The world is getting nuttier by the day. I think if some kid from another county is offended by a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, that kid has serious problems and needs counseling. I also think there are a lot of crazy teachers and principals around, makes home schooling look more attractive despite its drawbacks.

@rooeytoo I didn’t before you said so, but yeesh. Some of the things were not so unusual to me. Baggy pants and backpacks were banned when I was still in high school, and despite being an honor roll student and having never actually caused any trouble, I was repeatedly sent home or given detentions and warnings because of the way that I dressed (I was the goth kid at my school.)
I was just telling my husband the other day that they banned us from putting our hair up with our pens or pencils, because they could be used as “weapons.” Apparently, in your hands they aren’t weapons, but in your hair they were.

I’m inclined to agree with @Jeruba here. There are much more important things to worry about, like how the quality of our public schools is generally a simple expression of the tax base of the county, than whether every single child’s class and cultural background is being celebrated in the school cafeteria. (Oh wait, how about the fact that they’re being fed subsidized CRAP at lunch as well?)

Augh, I am so sick of how people in America use “race” as a catch-all for “class” and “culture.” THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THANG. But Americans get so anxious talking about class, and we are much more comfortable talking about race even though we do so in a very simplistic and reductivist manner.

And for the record, right-wingers and conservatives would tend to… disdain me at best, because I am a social democrat, a heathen, a homosexual, and a non-self-detesting transsexual, but sometimes I do feel like I understand where they’re coming from.

I didn’t grow up eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. My “race” as the teacher in this article would be likely to refer to it, was invisible and therefore discriminated against in school. But I have PLENTY of light skin privilege (although I’m not white, and my dad is darker than plenty of black people, and he grew up in a village with one water pump). I also have plenty of class privilege, and this certainly made it easier for me to do well in school. I didn’t throw a fit because the public elementary school I attended in a small working class Italian Catholic town didn’t bend over backwards to be “inclusive” of my family culture. There were white kids who could barely read or write by third grade, and black and East Asian kids who had private tutors and nannies at home. Race does not function in a vacuum, here or anywhere else I daresay.

@Pied_Pfeffer: It’s not a matter of Peanut butter & jelly (shudder) not being a “white staple” in Europe. It’s a matter of peanut butter not being a thing that white Europeans view as food for adults, period. It was a colonial/slave food for a long time and it has a legacy. (Just like chocolate has a legacy as a colonial drug food that was cheap enough for long enough for white Europeans and their American descendants to think of it as a staple.) The only adults I’ve met in Europe who eat peanut butter are African, Asian, or American in origin.

@bookish1 Then come to Holland and prepare to be amazed… You’ll find a jar of peanut butter in pretty much every kitchen in the Netherlands.

Most of us wouldn’t dream of combining it with jelly though

So George Washington Carver invented a racist food?

Food is culture at its most basic level. Cultures are defined by foods not foods defined by culture. We eat what is native to us, which in the US for many people is the classic PB&J.

It’s as common as satay in Indonesia, or morning Vegemite in Australia, or marmite in the UK.

What this has to do with teaching is that the authors don’t believe in assimilation but in segregation. Keep people stuck in their own culture, and don’t expose them to other cultures.

@whitenoise: Haha, thank you for the news flash, I stand corrected :)

@zenvelo: I am inclined to agree with your assessment. Although proponents of American multiculturalism would likely just consider the idea of assimilation to be “racist.”

@zenvelo Yup. A Black man invented the means to discriminate against his race. Oh get over yourselves peeps.

As a jelly, I resent the question. Now, where’s my PB gone?

I’m surprised they found a school that allows peanut butter on the premesis. Aren’t all kids allergic to peanuts these days?

Ok, I just read the article… the sandwich is not banned or anything. This was one person using the example of a PB&J as a way to talk to kids about cultural differences. The person who wrote the story is injecting a lot of controversy where I don’t think there is any.

I think the PB&J sandwich is (mostly) a US sandwich. I don’t find it to be racist. I grew-up on the very low end of the socio-economic spectrum & I ate a lot of PB&J sandwiches. My Mother’s favorite was PB & banana mashed up together. I still eat PB&J sandwiches. Peanut Butter contains a lot of protein – so it makes a good sandwich to carry for lunch to school & to work.

@Jeruba I would say South Africa. Here we are taught to know about and learn each others cultures. We have strong Muslim, Hindi, Zulu, Khoisan to name a few, cultures and traditions. We also have 11 official languages. Plus religions holiday, food preferences and expectations at our homes or functions.

nasty but not racist. I prefer my peanut butter crunchy and alone.

While another jelly and I privately debate the inventor of peanut butter, it amazes me that such a worldwide food as the peanut is considered at all culturally restricted by the educator. Peanuts grew in South America, Africa and spread around the world. They are found all over and in all kinds of regional cooking. And Unicef is using a peanut based paste as the basis for an emergency malnutrition therapy.

PB&J is delicious, not racist. The school is being unnecessarily uptight. This is the sort of thing that I would have once used as a ridiculous extreme to illustrate the silliness of the Pea Sea, except now it’s happening.

Peanut butter, by the way, was invented by George Washington Carver, who was black. So much for white privilege?

Christ on a pony.

Objectively, it is an odd food group to have become so popular in the US. Kids who will often eat nothing else, like my 6-year old nephew whois eating only chicken, edamame and popcorn this week, loves PB and J.

It has a very long shelf-life, travels well (on planes, trains and automobiles) and is edible even after having been sat on (if it is wrapped).

PB amd J is also delicious eaten directly from their respective jars with a spoon. It is also easy to make PB from a handful of shelled peanuts, if you have a food processor.

It certainly could be cultural, but that’s a different issue.

Here is the Portland Tribune article that @DigitalBlue‘s link refers to in the original post.

It’s worth reading. According to this article, Principal Verenice Gutierrez is the one who spoke out about PB&J being racist. (It wasn’t the teacher, which was my assumption from the OP article.)

Take the peanut butter sandwich, a seemingly innocent example a teacher used in a lesson last school year.

“What about Somali or Hispanic students, who might not eat sandwiches?” says Gutierrez, principal at Harvey Scott K-8 School, a diverse school of 500 students in Northeast Portland’s Cully neighborhood.

Here is the really interesting part:

Fifty percent of the students at Scott (school) are Hispanic; another 15 percent are black and 9 percent are Asian. Eighty-five percent are eligible for free or reduced-price meals.

Chuck Barber, who also offers boys’ drum corps at Vernon and Faubion schools in Northeast Portland, approached Gutierrez last year to start up a lunch-time drum class for black and Latino boys once a week. This year, it’ll expand to two classes a week, to accommodate new boys as well as those with experience.

At least one parent has a problem with the the class, saying it amounts to “blatant discrimination and equity of women, Asians, whites and Native Americans.”

“This ‘club’ was approved by the administration, and any girls who complained were brushed off and it was not addressed,” the parent wrote anonymously.

Gutierrez denies that any students were turned away from the drum corps, and vehemently rejects any suggestion that it is discrimination to offer a club catering to minority boys.

“When white people do it, it is not a problem, but if it’s for kids of color, then it’s a problem?” says Gutierrez, 40, an El Paso, Texas, native whose parents were Mexican immigrants. “Break it down for me. That’s your white privilege, and your whiteness.”

Wow.

@Pied_Pfeffer Guys need guy time, you know. If the girls want a drum corps, they can make one.

@Nullo Hmm, since this ‘club’ is offered during lunch breaks, and only to boys of color, how in the world are they ever going to learn the deliciousness of a PB&J?~

@Pied_Pfeffer Skip drum corps or make PB&J at home. :D I preferred informal chess club meetings through lunch, myself. But that’s probably racist, too…

@Pied_Pfeffer woah.

@Jeruba The Italian schools would accommodate me to a degree; I didn’t have to take Religion in middle school ironic, I know. :D, and they would not hesitate to bring in the English teacher to facilitate difficult communication. But if I didn’t want Italian food (not much of an issue because I like Italian food, and school only ran to 1pm anyway so school lunches were rare), my choices were limited.
I realize in hindsight that they were teaching me to be an Italian in addition to the three Rs; they understood that I might leave one day, but at no point did they ever think, “Well, you’re American, you won’t need this.” Not even in English class; the teacher would have me grade papers sometimes, when I wasn’t reading Italian books for the vocabulary or doing the same assignments as everybody else. So I learned Italian, Italian history, Italian geography, Italian business management, Italian interpretations of other peoples’ history, and so forth.

Part of why I think that immigrants ought to assimilate, if they can, and why I have nothing but scorn for people who try to make a race/culture issue out of PB&J.

Peanut butter and jelly is perceived as white privilage? Hahahahahaha! Seriously? I have never had a PB&J sandwich. Although I do eat white bread myself, yes I like Wonderbread, I think of it as a middle America goy, definitely not privilaged, food product. Whether there be p&j or bologna on it. Those of us who tend to eat Corned Beef or Pastrami, are more likely to have it on rye bread, and please no flipping mayo! Gross. I guess PB&J can be on other bread, but that is how I picture it, and the whole sandwich seems very American to me overall. I used to make it for my dad once in a while when I was a kid. I personally almost never ate sandwiches for lunch growing up, and I am second and third generation (depending on which side of my family) white, mostly eastern European. If school lunches had been sandwiches It would have been awful for me, I would have barely eaten.

Ironically, school bought lunch was pizza (Italian ish) tacos (Mexican ish) Hamburgers (we could call it German) but all these foods are practically considered American now.

My husband, he is Mexican, also never had a PB&J sandwich growing up, but in his 30’s he gave it a try, and he likes it. Has one every so often. I make him lunch almost every day for work, he gets a sandwich (and here I mean any type of sandwich) maybe 4 times a year at most. I make him what most Americans would consider dinner food for lunch.

And, what a crazy notion that a child should feel bad about eating the food that is typical in their culture, even if it is a “white” food. Do black Americans not eat PB&J generally? I have no idea. It seem like they would. Aren’t the peanut fields generally in the south? I would think southerners in general, all races, eat peanut butter.

This reminds me of Queen Rania of Jordan’s children’s book The Sandwich Swap. She tells a story of a two girls swapping their bagged lunches, the one has a PB&J and the other girl a sandwich with hummus. It is actually based on a true story of what happened to her as a very young child while attending an international school. She at first felt sorry for the girl who had that icky brown and purple stuff to eat, but then one day she took a bite when it is was offered to her, and discovered it wasn’t so bad. It’s a story about how being different should not be judged so fast. I never read the book, but I saw her speak about the book. You can read her talking about it just beyond halfway down this page.

I was called po’ white trash for liking Fluffernutters which came from my very not Southern stepdad who was from Vermont.

I think that in some contexts, different types of foods do define a person’s economic status, race, and what region they’re from. Maybe even their age. RC Cola and Moon-pies? Chitlins? Clabber and cornbread? Vienna sausages? Pork rinds? Hot Cheetos and chamoy? I do think of stereotypes when I think about who would eat these types of food.

That being said, I think there’s an overreaction going on in the schools— educate and explain, don’t ban.

I think this whole “privilege” thing is getting overused fast. White privilege, male privilege, hearing privilege, straight privilege— when does it move from being an authentic concept to a control tactic?

I have read all the above posts, and am really confused. Are you saying that PB&G is a white “privilege” food? Like caviar or lobster tail? Or are you saying it is underprivileged food, like moon pies and roadkill stew?

We have a lot of different cultures represented in our student body, but the white kids have no objection to the enchiladas and the brown kids don’t object to the burgers and fries. The black kids would probably be offended if we offered them fried chicken and watermelon. We serve a mixture of different foods, because it is impossible to please all the kids with just one bill of fare.

For myself, I liked fluffernutters as a kid, too. I also liked mayonnaise sandwiches. My best friend liked mustard sandwiches. But now I would rather have caviar and lobster tails.

@Skaggfacemutt The school principal that was interviewed feels that the teacher who used PB&J as an example (I don’t know what the context was) innocently crossed the line of being as PC as possible. Her reasoning is because the majority of the school’s students are not white. It sounds like she is stereotyping PB&J as a ‘white’ race food.

So peanut butter sandwich is racist but a special club for non white males is perfectly acceptable???

@Pied_Pfeffer Oh, that’s weird! So what should she have used as an example? I guess any food I name can be considered either ethnic or “white”.

It’s not fair, either, to the white kids, to be deliberately excluded from everything, just to be politically correct. As @rooeytoo said.

@rooeytoo Exactly. That’s my question. It sounds like the principal has a chip on her shoulder.

Stupid is what I say. It’s just food. Maybe they shouldn’t focus on what they are eating and focus on what the heck they are learning. Kids are getting stupider by the minute and they just turn a blind eye to it!

@Skaggfacemutt I know right? PB&J is high class? It’s ridiculous right? Who else thinks that?

Found this article. It’s a near miss on the subject, but the idea ought to carry over nicely.

Actually, the Incas (and/or Aztecs) were the first ones to make peanut butter. Check yo self, before you wreck yo self

But yeah, the analogy is still ridiculous. If you want to know more about white privilege, go read Peggy McIntosh and pay no attention to this doofus.

@Michael_Huntington Nevertheless, my point up there holds. Peanut butter =/= white privilege.

@Skaggfacemutt I don’t know what a better example would be for the teacher to use. In the articles that @DigitalBlue and I shared, there is no context to how PB&J was used by the teacher. Only the principal’s comments are listed.

I can understand if the teacher had said something like, “It’s as common as peanut butter and jelly.” and some of the students are from a different county and unfamiliar with this food. If that is the case, it’s just a matter of a student asking, “What is that?” Lesson learned for both the teacher and student(s).

Stereotyping a food to a race just alludes me. Regionally, yes. Race? Someone please help me to understand.

@Nullo As I’ve said, the analogy is still ridiculous. I’m not not disagreeing with you. Just wanted to stop this perpetuation of misconceptions.

When I grew up it was PB&J or nothing at all. Oh I suppose I could have made a sugar sandwich (which I liked) but if PB&J is too white, I’d guess a sugar sandwich would be worse. I eat what I like and can afford. Political correctness be damned.

Lol….What?

Do you think it would still be racist if it were pb and j on brown bread? Maybe it is the white bread thing that makes it racist. And if that is the case then I am guilty because really for me pb and j just doesn’t make it unless it is on that white wonder bread that lumps up behind your front teeth and never molds or gets stale!

I don’t know about racist, but have always thought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches sound… gluey.

@Adagio The mix isn’t quite tacky enough to be gluey, unless you’re using @rooeytoo‘s Wonderbread. You ought to try it sometime. They have peanut butter in your neck of the woods, don’t they?

@Jaxk Well, my husband makes open face sugar sandwiches and he is Mexican.

@Nullo , that article you listed in a previous answer was very well written. Maybe one of these days ALL of the races of mankind will find a way to exist in peace with each other.

People, people, people. This is Portland, after all. Didn’t you ever see Portlandia? It’s a spoof, but real Portlanders tell me it’s not a spoof by much.

@JLeslie

Maybe it’s the open face part that makes it international or multi-racial. All this is way too deep for me. It seems simple. It’s food, if you like it, eat it. If you don’t, don’t eat it. It’s not a racial statement.

@Jaxk This reminds me of the story two years ago about the NBC cafeteria having fried chicken for black history month, remember that? I thought the menu was fine, it was food from part of black culture. It especially seemed ok after hearing from the chef who planned the menu. This PB&J thing is just ridiculous. Way more ridiculous than the NBC example. The majority of American food can probably be considered “white.” Just stupid.

@JLeslie Near as I can tell, the Southern love of fried food comes from its Scottish immigrants.

@Nullo Hmmm. I really have no idea. I usually think of breaded foods as covering up things so it tastes good. LOL. Don’t get me wrong I love southern fried chicken, breaded pork chops, and even a fish stick now and then, but generally in my mind I have the idea people will eat anything breaded or battered and fried. Children are the best example, foods they would never eat they will eat if it is batter dipped and fried.

When I hear “white” food it rings “white bread” to me. Which is basically cuisine I would think of as unsophisticated eaten by people with unsophisticated tastes. Mostly bland food, and literally a lot of white colored food like potatoes, breading, sandwich bread, even white gravy, and mushy veggies. I think I associate it with the English ans Irish more (thinking stew also) but Scottish might be right also. Makes sense it might come out of that part of world. However, my dad says his mom boiled everything, he hated her food, and she was Russian, 1st generation born here.

I have a feeling poverty has a lot to do with the food actually. Dumping everything into a pot, all the scraps, making stews and soups. I south was very poor, still is relative to other parts of the country I think. Deep frying added calories for people who were otherwise hungry, especially if you add cheap batter or breading to the meat, and it tasted good.. Barbecuing, not to be confused with grilling, and boiling, slowly cooked parts of the animal that were less desirable, more tough. Hence we get bbq ribs, pulled pork, etc from the south, and very boiled veggies.

@Judi I’m not sure whether to love you or hate you for the peanut butter-and-syrup sandwich. I’m trying to eat more healthily, dangit. :D

@Nullo and @Judi Try peanut butter on whole wheat bread with honey. It’s wonderful.

and the spray on bacon and cyanide

@Pied_Pfeffer I’ve tried that one already. :D

@ragingloli Excellent idea, except for the cyanide (I think that I’m allergic to it); I’ll be trying that next time I make bacon.

@JLeslie

I am aware that Fried Chicken and watermelon are considered ‘Black Food’ but I don’t get that one either. I love fried chicken and watermelon for that matter (not necessarily mixed together). Everyone I know does. Brussel sprouts are another matter. Any group that wants to claim them as thier own can have them.

@Jaxk Yeah, growing up we deifiitely ate watermellon. I didn’t know it was a “black food” and possibly an insult until I was well into my teens. I have fond memories of being a little girl in NY and having watermellon eating contests in the park where I lived. I think it was on May Day? Might have been a different celebration day, maybe during the summer? We liked fried chicken too, although my mother never made it from scratch, but she did most things. I used to bring fried chicken for lunch all the time. In fact when I found a girlfriend I had not talked to since 4th grade on facebook, she said, “Hi, yes, I remember you. We used to play Charlie’s Angels and your brought fried chicken for lunch all the time.” It cracked me up she remembered my lunch.

So, I don’t know where the stereotype comes from? Maybe it was depicted in movies? Black people eating fried chicken and watermellon? While the plantation owners ate steak, the servants ate chicken? I have no idea. That is all a total guess. Southern food in general I associate as a black food sort of. It doesn’t jump into mind black people only eat it, far from that, but since most black people live in the south, or moved north from the south, Soul Food so to speak tends to ring of southern roots. I can tell you that if I have no idea where I am in a city, the McDonald’s is likely in a safer part of town then the Kentucky Fried chicken, but not necessarily. That comes off as a racist statement probably, but really it is more about socio economics, and that poorer areas around me tend to also be predominately black.

Oh, and Hispanics are known to eat a lot of chicken to, but not fried so much.

@JLeslie Here is one example of how it became offensive and here is another.And though you probably know this, there is a long history of black caricature that makes things that would normally not be considered offensive and racist become perceived as such.
One more example with a little history included.

@Earthgirl Thanks! It seems I guessed correctly. I especially liked the last link with the explanation and statistics. :)

I just had a samosa made by an Indian gentleman who swore that it was not spicy hot. I took one bite and almost died! He was laughing uproariously at my suffering. Now that is racist food!

I’m black so I feel I would be the first to know so I say no and did you know that peanut buttler was discovered by an African American? Inventor George Washington Carver.

^^ We did. See several of the earlier answers.

Welcome to fluther.

Fried chicken and bar-b-que are racist!