Essay 1549

Food, folks and fury in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Pizza and pesos piss off people, as a restaurant in Dallas discovered. After the place offered to accept Mexican pesos, it became a target for hate mail and even death threats. “This is the United States of America, not the United States of Mexico,” emailed one person. “If people would understand that the majority of our customers are Hispanic, then it might make more sense for a company to sell pizza for pesos,” said a restaurant spokesman. “It doesn’t make sense in Connecticut. And it doesn’t make sense in North Dakota or in Maine. But it makes perfect sense here in Dallas, in Phoenix, in Denver — areas far from the border that have significant Hispanic populations.” The restaurant should make a donation to the Minuteman Project. But pay the group with pesos.

• A theatre in Springfield, Illinois refuses to play new movie “Stomp The Yard,” fearing it will lead to violence. But the theatre owner insists he didn’t make the decision based on race, but out of concern the flick would lure gang members. An official with the NAACP said, “We don’t think this is going to attract young Black males who are part of a gang. … It would be good if it did, this is a positive movie, the message is you can go to school.” And stomp a rival gang member on the schoolyard.

• The Washington Post presented the latest installment of its series titled, “Being a Black Man,” profiling FBI agent Mike Mason. Click on the essay title above to read the full story.